The Lake County Post-Tribune wrote yesterday about the recently-passed US Farm Bill, with interviews from local farmers who got nothing and those on the receiving end of the subsidies. While the farmers are specific to the Lake County region, this story is playing out all across America, and has a huge impact on all of us - especially those who are struggling to make ends meet farming small plots of land.
"Your independent farmer struggles. Your corporate farmers do well," said Kouts-area organic farmer Andy Velasquez, whose farm doesn't qualify for subsidies. ... I'm a 20-acre organic farm. We received zero dollars (in subsidies) since I've been doing this. Everything's out of my pocket."
The small local farmer with a CSA and a couple of days at the tailgate market doesn't stand a chance against the larger corporate food companies such as Cargill. And as you might imagine, the Farm Bill has a huge influence on what we eat.
The farm bill subsidizes corn, soybeans and other crops, but not tomatoes, broccoli, onions, peppers and berries, which is what Velasquez grows.
Acres and acres and acres of corn begins the industrial food chain which ends, usually, at your local McDonald's where your average Joe eats a burger made with corn-fed beef, driinks a 64 ounce Coke filled with high fructose corn syrup, and has a side of McNuggets, made primarily with corn fillers and binders. It makes the gorge rise.
With the passage of this latest farm bill, we can expect more of the same. But if the government ever really wants to do something about the obesity epidemic plagueing our country, a good place to start would be the farm bill in 2013.
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