In a message dated 1/17/00 2:00:33 AM Central Standard Time,
bradbury@genebee.msu.su writes:
>
> Well EvMick, many farmers over the last 30 years or so have been
> getting paid by the government not to plant as much as they could.
> I think this was done primarily to keep the crop prices high
> so as to allow the farmers at the margin (usually small farms)
> to continue to operate. I know the government trend was to
> decrease this market distorting subsidy in the long run but
> I'm not sure whether or not this is still being done.
>
Before I started trucking I had a ten acre plot of land that i raised my son
on....(he's grown now and lives there with his family)....it's surrounded by
farmland...
As a matter of fact...the program you refer to is called CRP (crop reduction
plan?.....crap?...dunno)....and there is a LOT more animal habitat within a
mile of my place now than there was when I moved there.....hundreds if not
thousands of acres worth.
The old "farmer" just sits back and collects his check periodically and
ocassionally goes hunting on his "farmland'.....
Something like that is definitely what it'd take to get a farmer to take land
out of production....
Of course...there are the double dippers....some sneaky fellers have figured
a way to get paid NOT to farm one crop...and then manage to farm another crop
on the same land.....
Like cattle...
Or a pheasant lease....
.....thus....getting government money.....PLUS..
EvMick
St. Louis...
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:02:21 MDT