Another Attack On Production Agriculture

The New York Times has used the recent approval by the House Ag Committee of the 2012 Farm Bill as another excuse to launch an attack on production agriculture.

The Times editorial describes the bipartisan supported bill as an “unconscionable farm bill that protects grossly generous subsidies for the agriculture industry by cutting food stamps by a staggering $16.5 billion over the next decade.” The paper claims the food stamp cuts would deny two to three million people food assistance, end free school meals for 280,000 children and compound recession hardships for the working poor.

What The Times failed to report was that cuts proposed by the House Ag Committee amount to a whopping 2 percent cut in SNAP program expenditures, which last year alone came to $78 billion. They also failed to mention that spending on food stamps in 2011 was over 400% higher than in 2000.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, 18 million Americans received SNAP (food stamp) benefits in 2000. By 2011, this had grown to 45 million, one in seven Americans.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama points out, spending on this program increased 100% from 2001 to 2006, a period over which there was no increase in the rate of unemployment. From 2007 to 2011, spending increased 135%.