Escept to counter BAD federal policies! Wait for it, West Virgina, will be the number one recipient of Federal funds because Obama is bankrupting the coal industry.

North Dakota 2011-2013 budget - Federal funds represent 35.8 percent of the recommended budget. Total Federal funding received - $3,327,947,751. 2004 Federal spending received per federal tax dollar paid - $1.73 This is the problem in the 21st century! In fiscal year 2004, New Mexico, Alaska, West Virginia, Mississippi and North Dakota received substantially more from the federal government than they paid in taxes, while New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Illinois paid much more in taxes than they received in spending. North Dakotans pay federal taxes some of which are sent back to North Dakota some of which are returned to North Dakotans. All this wealth redistribution no longer serves a purpose.

THE_ANSWER is WRONG! Less than 10% of the price paid by the consumer at the grocery checkout line is farm value paid to farmers. 90% is the market bill labor, transportation, packaging, which is what is paid to the middlemen. See http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer780/aer780d.pdf Egotistical conceitedness tends to make THE_ANSWER not to have the correct answers. It is merely a gambit to make you believe. A common ploy by propagandists to get you accept the proposition without facts. It is AKA Hegelian dialectic perfected by Goebles in Nazi Germany.

Every country in the world except New Zealand has some form of farm price support program to protect its farming infrastructure from bumper crops in Uzbekistan. New Zealnad does not need such a program because its distance and associated shipping cost from suppliers of competing products prices imported products out of the market. question asked and answered.

THE_ANSWER is WRONG! Less than 10% of the price paid by the consumer at the grocery checkout line is farm value paid to farmers. 90% is the market bill labor, transportation, packaging, which is what is paid to the middlemen. See http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/aer780/aer780d.pdf Egotistical conceitedness tends to make THE_ANSWER not to have the correct answers. It is merely a gambit to make you believe. A common ploy by propagandists to get you accept the proposition without facts. It is AKA Hegelian dialectic perfected by Goebles in Nazi Germany.

It is not a "Farm Bill"! It is a "Food Stamp Bill" The articles title is a misrepresentation and Brian Darling is attempting to garner a following based on distortions and lies.

Here we go, Brian Darling, makes the farmers guilty by association with the food stamp program. The farmers are going to supply the food to all those people one way or the other. Brian Darling failed to establish how it is in the farmers best interest to have a huge food stamp program.

The USDA has been around since Abraham Lincoln. NOT to grow is important to keep farming costs a constant to shield the industry from commodity price tanking due to bumper crops anywhere on the planet! Fruits and veggies are labor intensive and production has went to other countries for obvious reasons. Look for the produce of USA label and if your super market does not offer "produce from the USA" then the issue is between you and you super market middlemen not the farmer. Farmers in general have a standard of living comparable to typical middle class. The $ millions spoke of are tied up in assets, machinery and land.

The direct price supports to farmers protect our farming infrastructure from bumper crops in Uzbekistan and the land bank protects down stream farmers and the watershed. All lessons learned since the dust bowl era. Food stamps, soon to be 70% of the USDA budget, don't subsidize the farmer one wit. The US went to war over a tax on food, The reason for the original Tea Party!

THE_ANSWER's satire escaped me on first take!

I get what you are saying Farmers contribution to the price at the checkout line is negligible! It is the ever rising cost of fuel and fertilizer and seed that is passed through and of course all the middlemen that glom on to our food dollars, like sales taxes. Before others make comments about food prices and show their ignorance they should study the system that has been in existence since Abraham Lincoln.