I can agree that the current farm bill is guilty of many abuses. I can even
agree that it deserves to be changed. Few Midwestern grain growers asked for
such high limits on payments as we now have. Only the largest among us have
profited by them, generally at the expense of family farms.

 

But I think it is worth mentioning that corn production in Canada might
never have reached the point where unfair competition
was a significant concern
of growers there, had not USDA refused to enforce the Packers and
Stockyards Act. That lack of Federal resolve encouraged the meat
packing industry to move cattle and hog
feeding operations across the border into Canada where they became
non-reportable to USDA; out of sight out of mind?

 

Perhaps climate change
can claim part of the credit also, but thanks to the burgeoning
livestock industry created north of the border by unfair trade
practices, demand for corn in Canada grew to the
point that Canadian farmers are now significant producers of the yellow
feed grain.

 

It seems that one bad act begets another, eh?