by Brian M. Riedl Click here for a chart showing Top 10 Urban
‘Farmers’ This year’s expiration of federal agriculture policies
gives Congress an important opportunity to take a fresh look at
the $25 billion spent annually on farm subsidies. Current farm
policies are so poorly designed that they actually worsen the
conditions they claim to solve. For example: - Farm subsidies
are intended to alleviate farmer poverty, but the majority of
subsidies go to commercial farms with average incomes of
$200,000 and net worths of nearly $2 million. - Farm subsidies
are intended to raise farmer incomes by remedying low crop
prices. Instead, they promote overproduction and therefore lower
prices further. - Farm subsidies are intended to help struggling
family farmers. Instead, they harm them by excluding them from
most subsidies, financing the consolidation of family farms, and
raising land values to levels that prevent young people from
entering farming. - Farm subsidies are intended to be consumer-
friendly and taxpayer-f