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I'm saying that those subsidy structures are what give the federal government's tentacles a good grip on anything in the flyover states. If you have an interes

I'm saying that those subsidy structures are what give the federal government's tentacles a good grip on anything in the flyover states. If you have an interest in micro managing these people (which you clearly do) then it is in your interest that the grip remain tight. It's really easy for you to keep ten BiCo's from dumping hazmat, over using fertilizer, running emissions noncompliant tractors, using illegal labor, etc, etc. It is much harder, much more expensive and much more politically messy to enforce your will to an equal degree upon say, a thousand medium and small businesses. And doubly so if the bigCos are dependent upon a bunch of paper pushing and box checking to qualify for subsidy in order to be profitable at all and the medium and small businesses aren't. So if you have strong opinions about the exact details of how the beans are farmed (or whatever, the beans are metaphorical) it's in your interest to keep these agricultural economies dominated by big business and on the government teat.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
How do you suggest providing the necessary support to otherwise unprofitable, distributed agricultural operations without creating the relationship you mention? I admit the federal government has incentive to potentially micromanage, and in some cases, they probably should (PFAS contaminated sludge as fertilizer comes to mind, which has contaminated tens of millions of acres of farmland in the US). A balance must be struck between fiscal policy and recipient compliance to (hopefully reasonable and data driven) ag policy imho. Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer used on farms pose cancer risk, EPA says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42704119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42704119 - Jan 2025 New bill could bail out US farmers ruined by 'forever chemical' pollution - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662905 - Jun 2024

toomuchtodo 2y ago

How do you suggest providing the necessary support to otherwise unprofitable, distributed agricultural operations without creating the relationship you mention? I admit the federal government has incentive to potentially micromanage, and in some cases, they probably should (PFAS contaminated sludge as fertilizer comes to mind, which has contaminated tens of millions of acres of farmland in the US). A balance must be struck between fiscal policy and recipient compliance to (hopefully reasonable and data driven) ag policy imho. Chemicals in sewage sludge fertilizer used on farms pose cancer risk, EPA says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42704119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42704119 - Jan 2025 New bill could bail out US farmers ruined by 'forever chemical' pollution - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40662905 - Jun 2024