It’s a dangerous thing in farm country to criticize our farmers. I believe that what I’m about to say is not farmer’s fault and is controversial, but many may agree with.
Enough is enough.
The amount of money that farmers have received during this pandemic is astounding to say the least. It’s been money that was meant to make up for the hard times during the pandemic. The problem though, is there haven’t been many hard times for the farmers. Other than the people raising livestock, the other farmers raising corn or soybeans have not only had good yields, but also great prices.
The drought made the year tough. For many of our farmers, there wasn’t much to combine, but we already have protections in place for that. You wouldn’t get rich off those protections, but also wouldn’t have to worry about going broke after a year like this. There’s always good and bad years for farmers, and that’s a risk they understand by now and the best are able to prepare for.
Most of my friends are farmers. At least, they were my friends before reading this blog. I’ve had a number of them say I’m right when it comes to the subsidies. In fact, one of them told me he received an $80,000 check from the government and didn’t know what it was for.
An argument could be made that my thoughts are a cheap food policy for America. Another side could suggest that if one farmer takes pandemic money, then they all have to in order to best compete. Both of those arguments are reasonable, but they ignore capitalism.
Now we’re back to the original issue of wondering if the money is necessary to give to farmers.
Or can we simply say, enough is enough?
Good riding with you,
Joel
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