Letter to the Editor
Published: March 13, 2008

Editor:

In recent Eagle letters to the editor, Robert Legge and Mathew Keener say substantial public money goes to support my (and all U.S.) farm operations. I share their concern.

Non-U.S. domiciled farmers can produce cheaper, because their societies do not impose minimum wages, Social Security and Medicare payments, unemployment tax, workmen’s compensation, health insurance, ecological restrictions and tech fees on U.S. patents. They also subsidize fertilizer, fuel and other items and do not allow U.S. farm products to be imported without hefty duties.
The general perception fueled by the newspapers is that the little guy gets nothing and the big farmers make a killing. This is just not the case.

According to U.S. government statistics, out of a total of 1.362 million farms with “crop land” — 684,000 farms or 50.2 percent have less than 139 acres each and 146,000 farms or 10.7 percent farm more than 5,000 acres. That leaves 532,000 farms or 39.1 percent in between.

These 688,000 small U.S. farmers produce a meagerly 4.45 percent of the total U.S. ag production but receive 49.4 percent of the subsidies, while the 146,000 large farmers produce 49.4 percent of total ag production but receive only 20.8 percent of total U.S. support payments.

It makes no sense to pay these 684,000 unproductive farmers — who make a living from off-farm jobs and not farming — close to $5 billion annually just to keep them “happy” under a welfare system. It is time to stop paying unproductive hobby farmers subsidies and give them real estate tax breaks.

Now back to Madison County teachers five percent pay increases. The fact is that the Virginia Education Association – whose members are teachers and teachers helpers — provides county school boards with the comparable pay scale in adjoining counties. This creates a happy merry-go-round to jack-up the teachers compensation county-by-county – it’s a screw without end that uses the slogan “it is for our kids future.” We need an independent evaluation – not a fox in the henhouse!

It’s time for the school board to start controlling expenses. If it believes that teachers should be rewarded every year with a five percent pay increase (while the private industry worker is concerned if his or her job will be still there the next day), then the money must be found from streamlining operations and administration – not from raising taxes.

Legge and Keener seem also to forget that farming/ranching is a 24/7/365 business – there are no radio announcements for days off when it snows or ices, no vacations and no sabbaticals. At these times — when these two gentlemen are taking the day off —farmers/ranchers have to be out in the weather and work.

Herb Putz
Madison County