Ethanol Central to Farm Bill

Next year Congress will have to decide whether or not to extend a farm subsidy program that expanded the money given to farmers -- some of whom receive money even if they don't plant anything.

About 1.2 million farmers and farmland owners got $15 billion in income support or price guarantees in 2005, according to a Washington Postanalysis of Agriculture Department payment records. The benefits are heavily tilted to large commercial farmers growing a few row crops in a handful of states.

Approximately one third of that money came from a law passed in 2001
that created $50 billion in subsidies over a 10 year period. While fiscal responsibility used to be one of the supposed tenants of conservative republicans, when it comes to agricultural handouts that primarily benefit the red states, both parties are willing to spread money like it was chicken feed.

The subsidies are for several crops aimed at preventing overproduction so that farmers won't lose out in the case of a surplus that drives prices down. But for corn growers, the incentives for ethanol production has contributed to the price of cornnearly doubling during the past year. That affects the price of corn for every use, which includes higher prices for hog farmers and at the supermarket.

Even if you support ethanol incentives, we are paying farmers to keep the price of corn high through one set of subsidies, and then guaranteeing that there's no chance that prices will go down as ethanol producers are buying up whatever corn is available.

For decades the farming industry (primarily corporate farms) have received special attention in government funding that has not applied to other sectors such as manufacturing that has seen millions of jobs shipped out of the country.

On the other hand, ethanol could instantly become much more cost effective if we stopped the handouts to the petroleum industry. Take away the more than $6 billion dollars per year in subsidies to the oil industry according to Terry Taminen), and oil prices rise, making renewable fuels suddenly much more attractive.

So let's become more responsible with our taxpayer dollars all around. While some of the farm subsidies may actually help family farmers, let's cut out $6 billion per year from the current agricultural subsidies, and simultaneously eliminate the oil industry and ethanol incentives. That would save us at least $12 billion annually, which could reduce our taxes by about $40 per person. It's a start.