BY: Lani Norden, Brent Prenger, Brian Phillips, Amy Randall, Jason Schroeder

Current Problem(including the policy in place at the beginning of argument

Farmers argument/their proposal for the future

Opposition's argument/their proposal for the future

How the scenario/voting played out What could happen in the future

Grain prices soaring More money handed out in subsidies A larger and larger deficit Small farmers not seeing any benefits to the bill Trying to change bill not succeeding Smaller farmers and associations have spent money lobbying

congress to keep the small farmers under protection with the bill

The government pays the american farmer to keep the economy going with fresh tradable food supplies

Some examples of the goods used in the program are; wheat, feed grains, upland cotton, rice, and oilseeds

The bill has enlisted other programs to begin such as the food stamp program and benefits for legal immigrants

subsidy is a form of financial assistance paid, usually by the government, to keep prices below what they would be in a free market, or to keep alive businesses that would otherwise go bust, or to encourage activities that would otherwise not take place. http://www.wikipedia.org

“If you’re providing benefits to the wealthiest Americans, that’s not a safety net”

Chuck Connor, deputy agriculture secretary

Farmers make up less than 1% of the population Most of agriculture is dominated by industrial farms that have annual sales greater than

$1million

Current laws allow subsidies to farmers with annual adjusted gross income less than $2.5million This allows large companies to retain most of the benefits (a company that makes $2million can

obtain subsidies of $2million

Average expected farm household income this year $90,000, and this is up from $77,654 the previous year (higher than normal household income) The normal farmer will receive little subsidies

Some foreign companies get United States tax breaks

Unpredictable weather Lots of necessary capital to begin farming New farm equipment is expensive

View of the farmer as “salt-of-the-earth”, always an integral part of American culture.

Income is higher Original intent of farm bill Large subsidies hinder U.S.

Farmers are strong Outcome of bill Hopeful outlook

The bill passing came at a high cost. Additonal groups, such as the United Fresh Produce

Association and the Black Farmers Association received benefits for the first time, adding $2.2 Billion to the total bill.

Costs are not likely to go down. In the past, subsidies to farmers have increased over time,

with the price of corn almost doubling in a four year period. With these continued price increases, a higher amount in subsidies

will have to be paid. This results in higher taxes.

These resulting increases will result in more and more of the federal budget going to paying farmers

The law is not set to expire until 2013, by which time the costs could skyrocket.