Wealthy ‘family farmers’ in California wage PR campaign to maintain their subsidies 2

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1. 

   Tom Philpott Posted 4:34 am
   25 Oct 2005

   Hidden subsidies/a questionGood stuff. The USDA's $15-25 billion per year in direct commodity subsidies are well-known; this piece sheds light on the hidden, literally underground government support on which industrial ag also depends.
   It's also good to see the babble about "saving the family farm" eviscerated. Real family-scale farms exist in spite of government support for megafarms; there's scant real government support for small producers.
   One question for Carter. You write that "Some 2.4 million acres of California farmland are now planted to cotton, rice, wheat, corn, and other grains eligible for federal crop subsidies, most of it irrigated with heavily-subsidized federal water."
   Yet when I think of the San Joaquin Valley, I think of monocrop fruit-and-veg production, not grain and cotton. Does the cheap water you're talking about in San Joaquin also amount to a hidden subsidy for our habit of eating "fresh" tomatoes in January in Cleveland?

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2. 

   deadline Posted 5:19 am
   25 Oct 2005

   EWG databases on water subsidiesEditor:
   Curious readers of Lloyd Carter's essay on how big California agribusinesses hide behind the image of the family farmer, even as they get millions of dollars worth of federal water subsidies, can learn more in Environmental Working Group's series of investigations of the Central Valley Project. The series includes databases showing just who gets the water and how much it's worth -- information previously shielded from the public by state law.  
   Go to
   http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5017
   Bill Walker
   
   EWG, Oakland, CA

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