Chuck Hagel: “The North Platte Nebraska editorial stated in part: Fortified with subsidy money, the largest farms continue to plant…”

“The North Platte Nebraska editorial stated in part: Fortified with subsidy money, the largest farms continue to plant millions of acres of crops, bidding up the price of land to do so. That creates more surpluses, low grain prices, continued low grain prices and a false land market. Present farm policy discourages small- and medium-sized farm operations, and it discourages young people from entering the business. Those of us in farm country recall the difficulties of the 1980s and what the agricultural community in this country went through. Partly that was a result of a false floor as a result of inflation in bidding up land prices. When it crashed, everything crashed. I suspect we are heading for such a time, unless we correct and address exactly what the North Platte Telegraph talked about in their editorial. Consider that since passage of the 1996 farm bill, we have spent a total of $62.3 billion in direct payments to producers, and that in fiscal year 2000, 63 percent of that $62.3 billion in direct payments to producers went to the largest 10 percent of farmers. I don't know, because I wasn't around 70 years ago when we established a farm policy in this country, but I think I do understand that there was a general intent not for this kind of misplacement of taxpayers' dollars to continue. The point is, this was never the intent of farm policy 70 years ago. A recent poll conducted by land grant universities showed that 81 percent of farmers want stricter payment limits.”