GLOBALIZED FARMS

I was surprised to see that Jonah Goldberg (8/10/06:6a) discovered that the Midwest is filled with welfare cheats called “farmers.” Rather than fly over places like Iowa, he went slumming and drove on the interstate through the Midwest. What he discovered is that farmers are getting subsidies although they sure don’t need them. He says that farmers get money for various reasons and they are no damn good.

Then he trips out with immoral farmers damaging the land and causing pollution.

Is that because of the subsidies or farm strategies?  He does not say. Immoral farmers take money that he implies could bring down the debt or cut taxes. Or, he does not say, the money could go to Halliburton or something unneeded in Texas.

Worst of all, he says the government gives money to Ted Turner (the mouth of the south) who says inappropriate things at the wrong time. Further, he had the audacity to marry and divorce Jane Fonda that born again Christian-Communist. Turner raises buffalo.

Farmers get subsidies in all western democracies. Why? Farming is a primary industry like mining and extracting oil from the ground. Growing food unlike mining is riskier because the weather is unpredictable. Thus a whole year’s crop can be destroyed by a storm or drought. Livestock can get infected and have to be terminated and buried.

Last, folks like Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley are prostitutes for trying to get subsidies for farmers in Iowa. Amazing.

Here is what I believe is the other side of the story. Goldberg wants to save you perhaps a dollar or two for every $100 dollars that you spend at the grocery store (that goes to farmers.) You may pay a little less in taxes. My guess is that Goldberg wants to outsource farming to the Third World. There large plantations can be established and folks working for pennies an hour grow a crop. Further, some very rich folk here who own the corporate farms in the Third World get richer and they are generally not farmers in Iowa.

You see the last globalization round at Doha was a flop. At these conferences, trade executives make agreements to reduce tariffs. This time, it was to cut the subsidies on farmers. Nearly all the farmers in all the western countries got mad as hell. Further, every time a farm or farm corporation goes over seas, money that could ripple through the economy to the rest of us, is lost (it is called the multiplier effect.) So there is less taxes and the streets, schools, and related start getting scruffy.  THE ECONOMIST (7/29/06:63-64) describes the end of Doha and the front cover shows a ship wreck called “Globalization.” So Goldberg is out to bring justice to consumers and taxpayers in the USA or is it big corporate entities that make money on those peasants in the third world? You decide.

Farmers are not alone. At the last meeting of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS, two-thirds of the members (mainly small and medium sized corporations) are losing their shirts to globalization, while the biggest corporations are pulling in loads of money(Business Week 7/14/06:32) So the organization of N.A.M. may come apart.

Goldberg likes Iowa, like Ohio State does on the big football game day between the Hawks and Buckeyes. For 25 years, I taught among others farm kids at Kirkwood College. I like them.

For their parents to compete with the giants overseas, they need our help. Take away the farm subsidy and numerous red states get smaller and smaller in terms of money and people. Blue state farmers will fade too. Thanks Jonah.