Farmers Bear the Cost of Artificially Low Food Prices

Editor, 
Wisconsin Christian News:


   I very much appreciate your newspaper and rely on it to provide information about current issues linked to living a life of obedience to Christ.  The article in Volume 18, Issue 4 by Pete Hendrickson, “What Is Paid For by the Ignorance Tax,” however, caused me to take notice.  I am a Kansas wheat farmer and have forty years of firsthand experience in farming.  While I agree with most of the points made about income tax, one point illustrated very well how peoples’ ignorance can cause misconceptions.

   One of the things made possible by the ignorance tax, according to Mr. Hendrickson, is “agricultural price supports raising the cost of our food.”  I’d like to clear up some of the misconceptions.

   The statement by Mr. Hendrickson is backwards.  Support payments to farmers are made because we in the USA have a cheap food policy.  Check it out.  In what other country can middle income households use only 13% of their income on food?  Farmers are often expectd to produce and sell at prices below the cost of production.  This is the case now and has been for the last two years.  In order for this policy to continue, and for food to continue being produced at such low prices, the government payments are provided to “lure” farmers into staying i ...

Want to read more?

Subscribe today!

Learn how to email this article to others