No Farmer Left Behind...

From the WSJ editorial piece of the same title in today's issue, a lovely piece on farm subsidies...

...food prices are rising faster than at anytime in 17 years. Milk now costs $3 a gallon in many states. Eggs, oranges, peas, tomatoes and rice are selling at or near all-time highs. The biggest winners have been corn producers, as corn prices have doubled in two years-- thanks in part to new mandates for ethanol. All of this is translating into the best gains in farm wealth in decades. Total farm income is expected to leap by 44% to $73 billion this year, according to the USDA....And yet Congress is writing another five-year farm bill as if this were 1936 and the Okies roamed the plains.

In a rare moment of self-reflection, Iowa liberal and Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin recently admitted that farm subsidies are "very hard to justify when we're having record prices and incomes." No kidding.

As always, for details on direct farm subsidies, go to the Environmental Working Group's fabulous database.