GS2 - 9/28/2025 01:55
John e.c.MI - 9/27/2025 13:09
Say you’re in a room full of non-farmers, what is your argument to justify direct payments to farmers? This would be excluding CRP, CSP or EQIP type program dollars.
I’m not arguing for or against, I cash the check just like everybody else. I do have a few self imposed rules on what I will or will not use that money for. No new Duramax, no improvements at the lake home and no new iron.
A farmer/rancher/producer affects virtually every single part of virtually every supply line.
Take planting the crop for example, a tractor and drill at its most simple.
The tractor came
(probably
) from the central mid west, Racine or the Quad Cities, where it was assembled, by a few thousand people.
The parts assembling it were also made by a few thousand people across the continent.
The steel for the equipment probably came from the steel belt, and was made by a few thousand people.
The materials for it probably came from the iron ranges of Minnesota, the mining of it takes a few thousand people.
The coal for the steel came either from the East, Midwest, or west, and mining it takes a few thousand people.
The rubber came from the US's former colony of Libera, was processed in various plants in the US, and made into tires and other various components
By this point, there are probably over a hundred thousand people involved in the making of a tractor.
Now for computer chips, half come from the county, wild guess, as they aren't cutting edge. You have well over a million people involved in just the design and manufacturing of those chips.
Every single step of the way, every little part must be moved, transported, a few million people are involved in that.
Now every factory making parts needs machines to do that and to be built and serviced. Duplicate the same supply line I just described. Then again for every single component making a component of this process.
You probably have over a hundred million people involved directly or indirectly in the building of a tractor alone.
The drill is the same story.
The fuel and oil are a very similar situation.
But wait, those factories and everyone involved need to communicate, need money, need meals and food, financing, leisure time and things to do when they're not involved. Every step of the way has to be regulated as well, according to the government.
All in all, everyone in the country and the world is indirectly involved in food production and not from just eating it.
The farm program and its money supports the entire country as agriculture is the very bottom, the very base of the economy and country.
If one wants a greater impact of one's tax dollars, one needs to bring everything back to the country, design and manufacturing and the industries that support them.
Government farm payments
