Cheap government water. Money not to grow crops. Money to grow crops. The usual. Plus all that free research from our Ag schools. And all that free advice from UC Extension and the Ag advisors.
California farms lead U.S. in subsidies
(2010 figures) Fresno County farmers lead the nation in harvesting farm subsidies, collecting nearly $1 billion since 1995, newly available Agriculture Department records show. Other California counties are close behind. Kern, Colusa and Tulare counties rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively, nationwide for total farm subsidies received, with rice and cotton growers benefiting the most.
Read more here: mcclatchydc.com
Save California Farmers From Themselves
The federal Central Valley Project has delivered subsidized water to a group of California farmers for more than 60 years. This water nobility, as I call them, or Republicans, as Rat calls them, thinks it is entitled in perpetuity to pay less than what would be the market rate for a scarce resource channeled hundreds of miles for its benefit. Only 15 percent of what it cost to do this has been repaid more than six decades after water was first delivered.
In a 2004 study, the Environmental Working Group estimated that the total subsidies for the Central Valley Project added up to roughly $600 million a year. While farmers dispute that figure, they don’t deny they have a very special deal. Why else would they fight efforts to make the pricing of water more market-based and defend their “rights” to it?
This competitive advantage has been worth tens of billions of dollars. All over the West, farmers served by federal projects have benefited from 50-year zero-interest loans, with generous repayment rates, plus low-cost power. And about 45 percent of the farmers who receive irrigation subsidies are growing commodity crops (such as rice and cotton) that qualify for price supports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- a classic example of double dipping. |
