[Jack]

More Farmers Seek Subsidies as U.S. Eats Imported Produce

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. — For decades, the fiercely independent fruit and vegetable growers of California, Florida and other states have been the only farmers in America who shunned federal subsidies, delivering produce to the tables of millions of Americans on their own.

But now, in the face of tough new competition primarily from China, even these proud groups are buckling. Produce farmers, their hands newly outstretched, have joined forces for the first time, forming a lobby group intended to pressure politicians over the farm bill to be debated in Congress in January.

Nobody disputes that competitive pressures from abroad are squeezing fruit and vegetable growers, whose garlic, broccoli, lettuce, strawberries and other products are a mainstay of world kitchens. But the issue of whether the United States ought to broaden farm subsidies beyond the commodity crops like corn and cotton, which have historically been protected, is a big flashpoint.

LINK to article

-----------------------------------------------
So now we're going to import basic foods from China. Forget the 3,000 mile salad - let's go for 10,000 miles.

I wonder how Americans will react when the food supply chain fails, and famine strikes home? I suspect people will live up to my expectations.

[rogerhb]

So what happened to "globalisation is a win-win"?

[MD]

I so want to pop off a nice long simmering doom rant, but all I can do is shake my head in disbelief that we could be so profoundly stupid.

[pup55]

Independent?

The fruit and veggie growers in California, who supposedly pride themselves on this "independence" are among the most heavily subsidized groups in the country, and are so affixed to the government mammary gland that it is pathetic. Examples: Every drop of water that is pumped into this place flows through federally constructed aqueducts, and divvied out as if it were a birthright. Every drop of diesel fuel used in these places are exempt from various taxes, etc. Every truckload of food that is trucked out of there goes out on a federally subsidized Interstate highway or railroad. Every illegal alien fruit picker made it up there because of the conscious policy of the government to stop enforcing the borders to depress overall wages in the area and provide backdoor foreign aid to Mexico.

This on top of whatever direct subsidies and tax credits they already have. The last big push for this, not coincidentally, happened in 2002 when the democrats were still in power in the senate.

Calif Agricultural Subsidies

It is true, however that the subsidies in this area are wimpy compared to the annual government handouts to the giant agricultural companies (ADM and Con Agra) who own the big factory farms in the midwest, the beef processors out west that graze their herd on federal land, for pennies on the dollar, chicken processors (Tyson) and the worst of all, the sugar subsidies in Florida and along the gulf coast.

The effect of all of this is clear: Americans spend one third as much on food, as a percentage of their income, as they did in 1950, and about half of the country is overweight or obese. The effect on the environment has been catastrophic. Example: big parts of the everglades dozed to give us sugar that is so cheap it can be literally given away in the little packets that sit on your table when you go into a restaurant. Pollution of ground water to such an extent that the big rivers that run through the middle of the country have all sorts of toxic properties.

The best thing we could do is tell these guys "no" and also say "no" to the imported fruits and vegetables from elsewhere, and let the price of food rise to the point where small farmers could truly afford to produce it economically on a smaller scale.

No one thinks about how vulnerable this food growing and distribution system is to any kind of minor screwup until there is a problem. Examples: the recent E-Coli thing with the spinach in this part of the country which caused a lot of people to be sick on the east coast. The more reliant we are on foreign food, or food that is grown in California and trucked around the country, the more vulnerable we are to the energy issue and PO, and the more painful the withdrawal when the time comes.