USDA announces
$170M-program to "help" some livestock
sellers
In the face of this summer’s withering
weather, the US Department of
Agriculture Monday gave what farmers
like Tentinger saw as a modest show of
support, offering to buy up $170 million
worth of meat products between now and
Sept. 31. Livestock farmers have been
squeezed hard this year, forced to pay
dramatically higher prices for feed,
which consumes much of the American corn
crop. Prices for meat have risen, too,
but not as fast as the cost of feed. The
USDA says the buy-up will help support
the price of meat even as farmers who
raise hogs, chicken, sheep, and even
catfish, cut back their flocks, herds,
and stocks to save money on feed. The
meat will go to government food
programs, such as school lunches and
food banks. The program excludes farmers
who raise beef cattle. Although they,
too, have been selling off animals to
reduce costs, the USDA says the selling
off will likely end soon...
more
---The government pays 417,000 farmers
to not farm on 30 million acres,
lessening the supply of all grains
---Government incentives result in 40%
of the corn crop going into ethanol,
further lessening the supply of feed
grain
---These two government
supply-restricting programs result in
huge increases in the price of feed
grains, putting livestock producers in a
bind
So, do the DC Deep Thinkers get rid of
the programs that are a major
contributor to the problem?
Nope. They use another government
program to restrict the supply of
livestock. This is a great example of
how one government intervention in the
market place creates a problem,
resulting in another government program
to "solve" that problem, which creates
another problem ad infinitum. The
government grows and grows and we all
suffer from the results.
