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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 26, 2001
Congress is in the midst of writing a comprehensive farm bill that covers everything from hog farming to food stamps. When it comes to the demands of agribusiness and the needs of struggling families, guess which group has our lawmakers' ear.
Hog farms are a growing source of pollution, particularly in North Carolina, where most of its 10-million hogs are raised in "confined animal feeding operations." Large metal buildings hold 2,000 hogs or more, and the vast piles of waste are collected in open lagoons, then sprayed onto fields where, it is hoped, plants will absorb the excess nutrients. In addition to the noxious odor produced by this process, the waste can leak into drinking water sources. Hog waste contains disease-causing pathogens and heavy metals.
When Hurricane Floyd blew through North Carolina in 1999, hog waste spilled into rivers and spread the pollution to the coast. Despite such environmental threats, state officials have been slow to respond. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is developing new rules that would put such runoff in the same category as effluent from factories and sewer plants. Farmers would have to make expensive improvements to their waste-containment systems.
In the past, Congress has given financial help to small farmers -- those with 2,500 hogs or fewer -- for environmental projects. Now, the House Agriculture Committee wants to open the program to even the largest and wealthiest hog producers. They could get up to $200,000 each over 10 years, the Washington Post reported. This generous helping of corporate welfare would raise the cost of the program from $200-million to $1.2-billion.
Rather than helping small farms, however, it would divert financial resources to the big operators. A General Accounting Office study in 1999 found that the largest 8 percent of farms get 52 percent of payments to farmers. In North Carolina, most contract hog farmers work for one company, Smithfield Foods, the largest hog producer in the world and ranked 341 on the Fortune 500 list, the Post reported.
The farm bill also allots federal money for food stamps, which are administered by the Department of Agriculture. Of the $73-billion available for program increases, the House Agriculture Committee allocated only $3-billion for food stamps, the Post reported. That's not nearly enough to fix the program, which has been in decline for the past seven years.
The Food Stamp Program served 27-million people in 1994 but only 18-million in 1999. Some of that can be attributed to our once-robust economy (this month, however, unemployment reached a nine-year high) and welfare reform.
Because of poor implementation of the program, only 59 percent of those eligible for food stamps -- and only 69 percent of eligible children -- actually receive them, according to the latest data. That is a shameful situation. Benefits are direct, helping adults feed themselves and their children, but it works only if food stamps are made available to those in need.
So here is what Congress did: Instead of making wealthy hog producers spend their own money to clean up the mess they made, Congress is willing to let taxpayers help pick up the tab. It is rewarding agribusiness for its irresponsible behavior. Yet when it comes to the needs of the poor, Congress is not nearly so generous.
What does that say about our government and us as a people?