re: Let's Talk About the Farm Bill

quote:

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switch your rice fields to soy, corn, cotton the next year with no problem

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Not necessarily.

And for argument's sake, my husband is a rice/soybean/crawfish farmer. He'd love to not have government subsidies ... he is in the group that thinks the market would correct itself. The farmers in our area are NOT big corporate groups ... he farms I think roughly 2500 acres ... plants about half of that each year (you rotate for those who don't know).

He's as efficient as they come ... and we certainly aren't the ones buying a new truck every year or 2 ... hell we've bought 3 in 16 years and #3 was ONLY because #2 was totaled (old man driver hit him ... smh).

It's big business ... and for the guy who posted the "average income" of 80somethingK, yeah, there are some good years but there are some years where you make zilch. Bills are paid and you don't take a vacation but really it's all good as the bills have been paid. Hell there were years that our kids qualified for free lunch. Take that 80somethingK and divide by the number of hours put in ... I 100% promise you it will be less than minimum wage. But that's ok -- he loves what he does and he's one of the best farmers in our area. We get calls on a regular basis about "can you please take over my land?". To take it or not in itself is not always an easy decision and is always well though out.

Now for those complaining, please don't choke on your mouth that is filled with food as you're doing the complaining!!

(And for the record, the "pay to not plant" wasn't in place when we started ...)