Thursday, September 06, 2007

More On City Slickers and Farm Subsidies

From Environmental Working Group (EWG): "You may envision your farm subsidy dollars going to hardworking farmers on picturesque farms, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Every year absentee landowners, corporations and other "farmers" collect hundreds of millions of dollars in farm subsidies, all while living smack in the middle of some of America's wealthiest metropolitan areas (see map above of "farmers" in Minneapolis-St. Paul receving farm subsidies). All you need to qualify for farm subsidy payments is a stake in qualifying farmland (and a good lawyer to help you wade through the paperwork). Last time we checked there were no farms on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, but somehow people are getting big bucks to "farm" there anyway."

EWG has prepared a short video presentation making fun of "City Slickers and Farm Subsidies," you can watch it here at EWG or here on YouTube.

5 Comments:

At 9/06/2007 4:54 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dr. Perry,

Are there any in Michigan? Such as Detroit or Grand Rapids?

 
At 9/06/2007 5:17 PM, Blogger Mark J. Perry said...

Here are the maps of Detroit and Grand Rapids:

 
At 9/07/2007 6:26 AM, Blogger Terry Ward said...

These injustices cry out for a Revolution!

I can barely afford a gallon of milk while these poseurs, these social pariahs masquerading as farmers are getting richer...nothing new there but o my aching ass how tired of it all I am!

Act up! Rise up! Overthrow!

http://notesfmthedump.blogspot.com/

 
At 9/07/2007 9:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just to keep everything in context, here’s a neat website that uses statistical data from authoritative sources to evaluate all federal programs:

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/expectmore/index.html

Not to be contrary, and with all rhetoric aside, most of the Department of Agriculture federal programs perform quite well compared to other federal departments. My program evaluation of the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program of 2002 (Department of Labor) for this semester’s graduate research paper does not fare nearly as well using objective outcome measurables.

 
At 9/07/2007 7:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here are the maps of Detroit and Grand Rapids:

*sigh* I took a look around the farms I knew. One was $186,000, but they are a "real" farm.

 

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