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Article: Playing with the big boys.(concerns facing American farmers)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- February 12, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Free-market policy catches many small farmers off guard
America's agriculture subsidies date back some 60 years to the New Deal, but it was during the 1960s that Washington developed a system of support payments for farmers who produced the major commodities -- wheat, corn, cotton, rice, sorghum, barley and oats.
Three years ago, however, the Freedom to Farm Bill upended those subsidies, opened the way to a market model for farming, lifted restrictions on what farmers could plant and generally raised expectations of greater profits for farmers.
The promise has not materialized. In fact, the plight of small farmers, by most measures, continues to ...