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. market

 “ 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.