Wellfare Farming

[Name]

[Date]

[Student ID ]

[Course]

[E-Mail Address]

WELFARE FARMING

Failure of Legislation in the Agricultural Sector

The United States Agricultural sector has been experiencing serious woes , and it has come in the form of crop subsidies . According to an article written by Cait Murphy , it has become such a danger that smaller family-owned or run farms are being driven out of business (Murphy 21 Murphy 's article begins with Read Smith , a 57-year old , 5th generation farmer . Smith has always looked forward to seeing his son inherit

the practice but the chances of that have become rather dim as small farmers are being edged out of the market . According to Murphy , farmers like Smith have been the recipient of crop subsidies from the national government , which has unfortunately become the source of the problem

Figure 1

Taken from National Agricultural Statistics Service ( see references

It was reported in the article that farmer Smith actually managed to secure some 220 ,000 of crop subsidies in eight years ending 2003 What 's more is that this is a small fleck compared to the - from 1999 to 2004 99 billion in subsidy payments were made . Yet still , smaller scaled agricultural operations subject to these subsidies are complaining that Washington 's being incompetent and that the policies are simply proving to be anything but effective . Smith himself , complains that his operations are doing well some years but in others , he relies on government support to keep his farm solvent and operating - but the mere fact that support from government is needed is enough to underscore the fact that the subsidies are not working

The object of this research is to determine the cause behind the failure of subsidies to prop up small farmers like Read Smith . All of civilized society began with advancement in agriculture . The ability to cultivate and harvest the land allowed for growth and , even today , it serves as a cornerstone for continued advancement . In the early part of the 20th century , there were almost 14 million individuals engaged in agricultural work . By 2000 , that number has dropped significantly by about 10 million to no more than 4 million (NSSA . In the graph (table 1 , a cursory glance reveals that the larger part of the decline in those engaged in farming came mainly from family workers

According to Murphy , crop subsidies were first implemented by the national government during the Great Depression to help tide farmers over bad markets . From the graph , these subsidies (and perhaps the increase in unemployed workers amongst other factors ) made noticeable impression as there was a sharp increase in the number of farm workers for half of the 1930s (Murphy 22 . While the subsidies have not stopped - and in fact reached that aforementioned record-breaking figure of 99 billion , the number of farmers is still on the decline since the great depression

Subsidies in the United States come in the form of guaranteed payments When farmers grow their crops and eventually release such products...