Farm programs ensure safe, stable, affordable food for U.S.

I am writing in response to an April 22 editorial titled "Cut federal farm programs" that complained of "long-standing crop subsidy programs that benefit the wealthy and skew the market."

There are several points commonly missed by those who criticize U.S. farm programs.

First, the farm bill is a means to ensure a safe and healthy supply of products that might not otherwise be available to American consumers. We know the strain of depending on foreign oil imports. The farm bill ensures we can largely depend on Americans to feed Americans. It also ensures safe, healthy and environmentally friendly methods are used to produce our nation's food, fiber and alternative fuels.

Second, many people often compare farming and the agricultural economy to that of traditional manufacturing businesses. Farmers are sound business people, but there is a big difference between traditional manufacturing and agriculture. Farmers must deal with the uncertainties of world agricultural trade agreements, prices, pests and weather.

The source of our food and fiber would be highly vulnerable without a farm program for American farmers, who cannot predict the effects of droughts or floods, plant diseases or predatory wildlife. The farm bill helps level that uncertainty and lends a hand to keep farmers in business from year to year. The vast majority of farm program payments that go to farmers are made only if target prices are not met.

The editorial also leads one to believe that most of the farm subsidies are going into the pockets of non-farmers.

Individuals and families own more than 98 percent of U.S. farms and produce about 86 percent of U.S. food and fiber. Most farm payments go to qualified family farmers who need the safety net to overcome risks unique to agriculture.

Furthermore, there are at least 33 different kinds of compliance checks to discover improper farm payments, which help hold farm payment cheaters accountable. The government uses a number of auditing techniques such as aerial photography, on-site inspections and collateral appraisals to audit payment recipients. Farmers who knowingly break the rules should be penalized to the fullest extent of the law.

The farm bill needs to make sure our country has domestically produced food and fiber at prices Americans can afford. I believe we need a farm bill that is meant to support production on a per unit basis to offset the impacts of closed markets overseas, as well as variability in weather and domestic markets. Farm policy is not meant to be a social program and should not be seen as such.

I would invite the non-farming public to look at the farm program's safety net for families like they would view health insurance — you don't drop it just because you're healthy. It's there in case you need it. The farm program works the same way.

The U.S. government farm program ensures the continued production of a safe, healthy, abundant and affordable food supply.

It totals only about 3 percent of the total national budget. That's a pretty good deal for all Americans. What's more, even though food prices are on the rise, the average American farm still only received about 19 cents of every dollar spent on food. The other 71 percent goes to middlemen, and for transportation, packaging, marketing and other costs associated with moving commodities from the farm to America's dinner tables.

DON WINKLES

Knox Abbott Drive

Cayce

Mr. Winkles is a farmer in Sumter County and president of the South Carolina Farm Bureau.