<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for Wealthy ‘family farmers’ in California wage PR campaign to maintain their subsidies]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Tom Philpott http://www.grist.org/article/the-most-politically-powerful-welfare-recipients-in-the-world/ Tue, 25 Oct 2005 04:34:45 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/the-most-politically-powerful-welfare-recipients-in-the-world/1 Hidden subsidies/a question

Good 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?

]]> Hidden subsidies/a question

Good 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?

]]> Comment #2 by deadline http://www.grist.org/article/the-most-politically-powerful-welfare-recipients-in-the-world/ Tue, 25 Oct 2005 05:19:40 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/the-most-politically-powerful-welfare-recipients-in-the-world/2 EWG databases on water subsidies

Editor:

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

]]> EWG databases on water subsidies

Editor:

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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