A Place at the Table Page #3

---

and what we subsidize

and what we don't.

# Look out, Ma, look out, Pa #

# Look at that horizon #

# Something's out there,

kicking up dust #

# Storm is coming fast #

The subsidy system that we now have

actually started back in the 1930s

during the Great Depression.

Farmers were the first to be hit hard

when the economy went bad.

There was a lot of pressure to put

some sort of

government assistance forward

to help them get a decent price

at harvest time for their crops.

The programs

in the Great Depression,

of course,

were emergency programs.

The idea was, if we could,

on a temporary basis,

help support

the prices of farm products,

that we'd get

through this difficult period.

And then we would let

the market take over,

except we never let

the market take over.

# It's been a long time coming #

In the 1930s and '40s

and into the '50s,

and even a little bit beyond that,

I think you could make the case

that it really was family farmers

who were mostly benefiting

from these programs.

But as the agricultural sector

became more concentrated

in terms of ownership

of the land resources,

more and more

of these operations

came to resemble agribusinesses

and not family farming operations.

# It's been #

# A long time coming #

# It's been #

# A long time #

The U.S. Department

of Agriculture, USDA,

Is one of the most diverse

and complex agencies

in the entire federal government.

It does everything

from international food trade

to the Forest Service,

to food safety,

to animal protection,

to, of course, farming programs,

and food and nutrition programs.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture

has increasingly become the domain

of support for mega-farms

and mega-farming corporations.

Most of that subsidy money,

about 70% of it,

has gone just

to 10% of those beneficiaries.

The biggest,

largest, best capitalized farms,

they're hauling

in this taxpayer money now.

And so there

is this weird paradox

where welfare

for the poor is scorned,

but corporate welfare,

as it's known,

is sort of heartily endorsed.

We subsidize

the basic ingredients in processed foods.

We do not subsidize fruits,

vegetables, and whole grains,

because the producers tend

to be small producers.

They don't have

the kind of political clout

that the big commodity producers

of corn and soybeans

and wheat

that gets processed do.

These subsidies

made products very cheap,

and therefore made it profitable

for the food industry

to invest in the infrastructure

for processing those products

into the packaged goods

that we see on every counter,

in every corner store,

in every vending machine,

that are really ubiquitous now

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes