General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUSDA to cut off farm subsidies to city slickers.
The Agriculture Department is getting ready to tell a lot of people whove been getting farm subsidy checks without lifting a hay bale, swinging a pitch fork or driving a tractor that theyre cut off.
Congress couldve answered the question of who is a farmer? and thus eligible to get payments when it passed the Farm Bill a year ago, but it punted the matter to the USDA.
Wealthy executives, celebrities and others get subsidies even if they never set foot on a farm or dont need the taxpayer-funded assistance. They include the likes of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, according to an Environmental Working Group report.
USDA will soon issue its proposed rule for qualifying who is actively engaged in farming, making them eligible for some of the billions paid each year to farm families across the U.S. to support them in tough times when crop prices or farm revenues are low, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told POLITICO in an exclusive interview this week.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/usda-city-farm-subsidies-114955.html
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)MohRokTah
(15,429 posts)Meanwhile the people who actually, you know, FARM go wanting.
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)would not qualify.
That's OK. Don't want no Gubermint intrusion.
2naSalit
(86,643 posts)annabanana
(52,791 posts)obvious loopholes that the rich jump through...
Lochloosa
(16,065 posts)Presto! You are a cattle rancher and that commercial property just became agriculture property with all the benefits that go with it.
Low property taxes, subsidies etc. Nice gig if you can afford it.
ChosenUnWisely
(588 posts)This is long over due