No more subsidies for dead farmers

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

The Washington-based Center for American Progress wants the U.S. government to quit sending subsidy cheques to people who don't farm, or might even be dead, and instead redirect the money to rural alternative energy projects.

In a column published on the Center's website in April, Jake Caldwell, director of policy for agriculture, trade and energy cited a Government Accountability Office report that found the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had paid 69,120 individuals who had been dead at least three years between 1999 and 2005.

"The federal government automatically pays $5.2 billion in commodity-based 'direct payment' subsidies each year to people who may or may not even farm," he wrote. "We should reinvest the $5.2 billion per year in outdated direct payment commodity subsidies into initiatives to promote low-carbon, agriculture-based energy in USDA programs. This funding can provide incentives to encourage energy efficiency on farms and renewable energy such as wind turbines, solar, biomass and geothermal power."

Caldwell asserted the U.S. Department of Energy estimates that if five per cent of the nation's energy came from wind power by 2020, rural America would see US$60 billion in capital investment, and landowners would derive $1.2 billion in new income.

He cited a University of Tennessee study which predicts that "a well-designed carbon offsets trading system" paying farmers to conserve carbon through good soil and forest management practices would increase farm revenue by $13 billion a year.

Caldwell also advocated that farmers should receive matching grants to produce crops for biofuels.

The Center for American Progress claims to be a non-partisan think tank. BF