Jay Bookman

By SP

May 16, 2008 7:26 AM | Link to this

Amazing- Wooten and Bookman agreeing on something. Welcome to the dark side, Jay.

First!

By Copyleft

May 16, 2008 7:56 AM | Link to this

I’ve always wondered why bribes to agricultural backers warranted their own category of subsidy: “farm bill.”

Pork is pork, folks.

By Jim Messer

May 16, 2008 8:07 AM | Link to this

Jay -

For a different take on the Farm Bill, read the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.Here’s the link:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/15/MNMG10N32I.DTL

By Taxpayer

May 16, 2008 8:12 AM | Link to this

Copyleft, I must disagree with you — Pork is not pork. There’s such things as bacon which is a blend of good lean meat and fat, ham which might be referred to as the other red meat, and then there’s the pork rind. This farm bill that Saxby is soooo proud of looks like pork rind to me. Pork rind has to be handled very carefully in order to keep it from going rank. It has to be salted down and kept under wraps or fried. It’s really nasty stuff once it turns (actually, it’s pretty nasty stuff before it turns) but I’m sure Saxby is well aware of this.

By Wild Bill Hiltner

May 16, 2008 8:17 AM | Link to this

Dear “Oh Jay” Bookman - like the old song says, “pleeeeeese baby go all the way” - Obamalamadingdong supports ethanol and other wasteful farm subsidies - why not call him to task?

By tom ga hunter

May 16, 2008 8:24 AM | Link to this

It’s good to know we have 5 Republicans who can’t be bought. We can vote out the other crooks/Rhino’s in a few months.

By ByteMan

May 16, 2008 8:35 AM | Link to this

@tom: they won’t be voted out at all. They will proclaim themselves heroes for bringing home the pork AND not raising their taxes at the same time. Forget about who might pay for this, that doesn’t matter to the politicians. They’re more concerned with having to get a real job instead. And their respective parties will back them just to keep up party strength. With only two viable parties competing to spend our tax $$, the game gets more and more rigged.

Cynical? Maybe. How else to explain how farmers need help when they’re getting top $$ for their crops? That’s as stupid as giving tax breaks to oil companies to explore more as their profits are soaring.

Oh, wait, we’re doing that, too, aren’t we….

By Sally

May 16, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this

The Farm Bill also includes a provision to extend expanded tax benefits for permanent land conservation agreements - helping landowners protect land they love for future generations while keeping it in private ownership.
That’s a good thing.

By Fix-It

May 16, 2008 10:12 AM | Link to this

Farm Bill, where is the Information Technology bill? I want to stay home and get paid. I do believe I am being discriminated against! Why should one sector of private enterprise get free hand outs? Either we ALL get it; or nobody, I vote nobody!

By Jim's a Cherry PIcker

May 16, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

Hi Jay,

And to elaborate a little on that credit giving…Tom Price was only doing what he was told to do. I wouldn’t give him too much credit for being an independent thinker.

By gafarmer

May 16, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

Drop the farm bill! Commercial family farms will go broke or plant an eco friendly crop like pine trees if they are financially able and whats left of rural America will move to metro to compete for your jobs. By the way, more than 10% of you will be unemployed because there will not be a demand for ag inputs.

More money goes to nutrition programs funded in the “farm bill” than to the farmers that produce 90% of U.S. farm products. Drop the farm bill and hungry people will do things we have seldom seen in this country.

Drop the farm bill, then we can enjoy foreign food like we enjoy foreign oil. We can import more food from China and India and other countries where food safety is in the hands of the consumer.

The farm bill is far far from perfect but all of America will suffer without it in place.

By Economics 101

May 16, 2008 10:49 AM | Link to this

Jay,

I thought for sure that you would support this bill. I will give credit where credit is due. Subsidies result in more subsidies that result in higher prices. In the real world if you can’t turn a profit in the market you go out of business.

I don’t want to here this family farm non-sense. Most farms are owned by extremely wealth individuals. The “Family Farm” as dramatized for the MOST PART died many years ago. Subsidies protect a minority at the expense of the rest of us.

This country should pass a constitutional amendment that requires anyone serving in Washington to pass a basic Economics exam. The fiscal policy decisions coming out of Washington are going to run this country into the ground.

By Redneck

May 16, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

gafarmer, I thought the farm bill was horrendous because 67% of the 300+ billion went to food stamps, one wealthy entertainer gets $700,000 to not plant crops on his acreage and someone I know has 25 acres and gets $456.00 not to plant any crops. Can you rationally explain that?

I have noticed over the years that whenever the farmers in Ga have bumper crops they want government subsidies because of low prices; then when there is a drought and the yield is low they want subsidies. Please tell all of us what is the ideal situation for farmers?

For me the bottom line is if you don’t like your occupation, change. Thats what I have done a number of times.

By RealityKing

May 16, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this

Anyone that voted for this $289 billion farm bill can nolonger cry about the national debt or Iraq war funding!!

And just how did our candidates elect vote???

By Fix-It

May 16, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this

Hey GaFarmer, what ever happened to free enterprise? If we drop the farm bill then farmers will have to grow crops for local people, what is the problem with that? There are many organic co-ops that do this now! Why would people go hungry if we drop the farm bill? That is just a flat lie! How about all the farmers getting paid to NOT grow something, grow something. I can grow enough food on a ½ acre plot to feed my family of 3 so please tell me why stopping the farm bill will make people go hungry? Or please tell my why we should not expand the giveaway to ALL sectors, oh that’s right that would bankrupt America. I guess IT people should say that if we don’t start getting government hand outs that we will shut down all computers based businesses in the US. Why not farmers threaten us with starvation and some how the idiots in Washington listen, what happens when their email stops working?

By Brian

May 16, 2008 11:51 AM | Link to this

What role do US farm susidies play in illegal immigration? Think about it…. A US farmer gets a subsidy. A Mexican farmer does not. The Mexican farmer cannot make any money to feed his family. He comes to the US illegally.

By Thor

May 16, 2008 12:23 PM | Link to this

Saxby Chambliss voted for this. He’s is nothing more than a rubber stamp, back bencher, do nothing.

By gafarmer

May 16, 2008 1:01 PM | Link to this

Redneck @10:53 NOBODY is paid to leave land fallow or not to plant. Land with a crop base can acrue a payment without regard to current cultivation.

Fixit @11:02, free enterprise went out the window for most farmers when we started paying more for intellectual property, patented seed, and other inputs than land rent. We generally buy from monopolies and sell our products to monopolies and pay the freight both ways.

I am sure you can grow enough of SOME farm products on 1/2 acre to feed your family. Most folks today don’t have the 1/2 acre or the time or the knowledge to do that. Your diet will get pretty monotonous eating the few foods you can produce and pretty expensive when you try to preserve them for year round use. ‘Mater samiches without mayo, salt, and pepper just ain’t as good, so you need to think about where the cows and chickens go on that 1/2 acre and you need a few hogs cause you cain’t grow crisco.

There are people who depend on the nutrition programs to exist. They are the people who would go hungry. Most are elderly or single parent families who have financial difficulty through no fault of their own.

I live in one of the 5 most heavily agricultural counties in Georgia and the only CORPORATE FARMS I know of are mechanisms used to pass the farm to the next generation who generally don’t all choose to farm.

I love my occupation but I can’t compete with Dow Chemical, Monsanto, John Deere, Acher Daniels Midland, Bunge, And Cargill enjoying protected status without some protection myself.

Mexican farmers do enjoy restraints on imports while our borders ere mostly wide open to imports. I will compete with any farmer on a level playing field but we have not had that in the 45 years I’ve been farming. Most countries we export to protect their domestic industries with monetary manipultations, tariffs, etc. I can’t compete with ANY foreign government without protection from my own. Free trade is a goal, not a reality.

Redneck, my ideal situation is worldwide free trade without our government or any other being involved. An absence of patents, coprights, or monopoly of any type and the opportunity to sell to many buyers instead of one, two, or three.

By Fix-It

May 16, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this

It is too bad that our government has “institutionalized” farming. But remember that when you rip a band-aid off real quick, it may hurt at first, but it is much better in the long run. Yes I can grow some products on a half acre but my friend down the street with 20 acres has cows, so I can get meat, if I chose, by the way he has some pigs too. Now what exactly was your point? Oh that’s right without our government I will starve. I do believe that you are 100% wrong, markets will level out, we did not starve for untold millennium before our government ruined farming, so why would we if they stop giving freebees to farmers? Why do farmers here have to compete in a global market? Does everybody in America have enough food? If we are growing enough to sell on the global market, then we are over producing. If farmers grew what they could sell locally then the government would not need to give hand outs…We would also save fuel by not having to ship it. Gee what a stupid idea….

By savannahlady

May 16, 2008 1:57 PM | Link to this

I’d love to see what New York City could “grow locally”…

By demwit

May 16, 2008 1:59 PM | Link to this

Wait a minute!

Ain’t this planting season..?…, gafarmer??

By savannahlady

May 16, 2008 2:00 PM | Link to this

I’d love to see what New York City could “grow locally”…

By Fix-It

May 16, 2008 2:36 PM | Link to this

NYC already grows a lot locally; Brooklyn has several hydroponic facilities that grow year round. There are also many roof tops that could be utilized.

By Fix-It

May 16, 2008 2:43 PM | Link to this

Excuses are cheap, solutions take work. But that is the issue; nobody wants to work, why should they when you can get a hand out…..

By Anonymous(for family peace)

May 16, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this

“Google” “farm subsidies” for an insight into how the USDA distributes (or is it “redistributes?) taxpayer funds. Try “googling” a name for some particularly interesting results. My wife “googled” a south Georgia cousin’s name and discovered that he had received $1.28M in such distributions from 1995-2006. We always wondered how he could afford a new house, a pool, several late-model vehicles and rent an apartment in NYC. We don’t wonder anymore.

By War Eagle

May 16, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this

This is a first for me….agreeing with a Liberal

By Dick

May 16, 2008 3:34 PM | Link to this

I live in the rural areas of South Georgia, some 50 miles north of Tallahassee Fl which should tell you we are in the ag belt of ga. When I leave my job which I chose to do for a living this afternoon, I will take my usual route home. Unless things have changed since 6:45 A.M. this morning I will pass by four farmers home These have late model pickup tgruks, wives have nice SUV’s several have swimming pools, children have nice vehicles as well and all have satilite systems. So go poor mouth some where else Gafarmer

By gafarmer

May 16, 2008 7:27 PM | Link to this

For Demwit at 1:59, Yes it is planting season for some farmers in Georgia and harvest season for others. For some of us its harvesting and planting season. Depends on the crops you grow.

I choose to read the AJC online because I like to read it the same day its printed. Today it happened at lunch. I am fortunate to have access to the net that makes this possible, many of my neighbors don’t.

For Dick @3:34, For every farm you just described there many others who do not have these amenities.

I am not “poor mouthing” but ya’ll are expressing opinions about situations which you are ill informed.

The defining fact about the financial health of agriculture is the number of sons and daughters of farmers who choose to leave this “lucrative occupation”.