I shake my head in disbelief every time I read something about farm subsidies. Victor David Hansen’s latest article has me once again looking on in a mix of anger and slack-jawed wonder. Why are my tax dollars going to corporate farms when the price for crops are so high:

These farm-giveaway bills are always justified by promising to ensure Americans inexpensive food, the survival of family farmers, and national agricultural independence. But the opposite has occurred. Consumer food prices are rising each year. There have never been fewer family farmers. And in terms of gross sales, the nation is importing almost as much food as it exports.

And now, we are being told that subsidies are needed for ethanol, because ethanol is going to change the world. Right:

Apparently, this time the angle is ensuring “alternate fuels” in the form of grain-based ethanol. But ethanol isn’t the panacea it’s made out to be. Along with the energy consumed to make ethanol, the switch over to millions of acres to corn fuel production has already meant crop shortages and high returns to farmers, from cotton to wheat and soy. And if we really want ethanol to supplant gas, it would be far cheaper to allow Brazil to export us sugar-based ethanol without high tariffs.

Or better yet, stop propping up the price of sugar here in America and use it.

The $280 billion-plus farm bill is not the largest waste of federal funds, but it is the most unnecessary — and dishonest. We are running federal budget deficits — this year’s is about the size of the proposed multiyear farm bill — engaged in two costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and spending billions in antiterrorist security at home.

Let’s do some quick math before we go: $280,000,000,000 for the farm bill and there are 300,000,000 Americans, give or take. That brings the individual bill to: $933.33 per citizen. Your tax dollars at work.

Related posts:

• Pimping Ethanol in Iowa
• “Trying to get by on cookies made with dirt, vegetable oil and salt”
• Breakdown of the Farm Bill Spending – Where Does the Money Go?
• Subsidizing the Consolidation of the Family Farm: How Farm Subsidies Are Nothing More Than Corporate Welfare
• What Happens If We Abolish Farm Subsidies?