The Sweet Smell of Subsidy Farming
"We don’t feel like we’re cutting a fat hog here,” said sugar-beet farmer Steve Martineau from his 900 acre Idaho spread near the Snake River.
Maybe not, but sugar-beet farmers like Martineau produce the raw materials for the world’s most expensive sugar. Our government agricultural subsidy programs overprice American sugar by three times the world price and stuck consumers (in 1998) for just under $2 billion at the dinner table. So it might not feel like cutting a fat hog, but that’s the main problem with subsidies; they don’t really help farmers, who get used to the income and are seduced away from growing profitable alternatives the markets need and the land will support.
Essentially, as a consumer you’re opening your wallet to Steve and his son, accepting an outrageous price for a common commodity and at the same time wrecking the livelihood of Central American cane growers. That doesn’t seem like much of a bargain when Steve and his son could as easily rotate cabbage, mint, pump…