Throwing Farmers Under The Bus

You’d be hard pressed to find an American that isn’t aware of the grim fact that our nation’s government needs to cut spending, cut it to the bone so to speak. Where those cuts are going to be made has been the subject of many a discussion across the country, from local coffee shops and town hall meetings to the floor of Congress. Farmers can’t help but worry that agriculture will once again be a primary target for federal budget cuts; and yes, as the hatchet falls everyone will be arguing for their own specific programs to survive. But agriculture as a whole has already made large sacrifices to help trim budgets. Frankly there isn’t a lot of what could be considered as excesses in farm policies left to cut. While our country most assuredly needs to be put back on firm financial footing, throwing farmers under the bus is not the way to go about getting there. To continue to reduce or eliminate agriculture programs is literally biting the hand that feeds us. Several ag programs that have been in place for decades were implemented for good reason and the security they provide farmers is a prime reason why our nation’s ag industry is the driving force in this world that it is.