11/13/07 Ag economist defends commodity subsidy recipients

Farm and Ranch November 13, 2007 With Congress in the midst of producing a new farm bill the general media and editorial writers have again focused on who receives federal crop subsidy payments. Their conclusion is often that payments are not going to the farmers who need them. Kansas State economist Barry Flinchbaugh, a speaker at the recent American Bankers' Association Ag Lending Conference, offered a counter argument. Flinchbaugh: "There is a ton of misinformation on this. The Wall Street Journal loves to say that 10% of the farmers get 70% of the payments. Well, 10% of the farmers produce more than 70% of the production. And that old definition of a farmer, which is a thousand dollars of agricultural sales, screws up all kinds of statistics in terms of putting out accurate information. You look at the 300-thousand commercial farmers in this country and look at who gets what, efficient commercial family farms get these payments. They get the bulk of the payments, which is exactly what the farm bill is designed to do. Now, the hobby farmers don't get very much but they don't produce very much." So Flinchbaugh says it is a huge piece of mythology that the farm subsidies are all going to wealthy farmers. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.