News item:
"Tennessee dairy farmers soon could get paid substantially higher prices for their milk, but they’re not relishing the prospect.
Instead, they fear it could make milk so expensive — potentially as much as $6 to $8 a gallon, by some estimates — that even more people stop drinking it.
“I don’t think it would kill our industry, but it would seriously injure it,” said Deborah Boyd, secretary/treasurer of the Tennessee Dairy Producers Association.
Those “dairy cliff” fears are based on Congress’ inability to pass a new five-year farm bill to replace one that is set to expire on Monday. The bill outlines how the federal government determines prices paid to dairy farmers.
Unless a new bill is passed or the current one is extended — Congressional leaders said Friday they were working on an extension — a 1949 law would take effect. That law would force the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pay roughly $38 per 100 pounds for milk, or double the current prevailing price......."
October 3, 1997.
Honorable Secretary of Agriculture.
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir;
My friend, Ed Peterson, over at Wells Iowa, received a check for $1,000 from the government for not raising hogs. So, I want to go into the "not raising hogs" business next year.
What I want to know is, in your opinion, what is the best kind of farm not to raise hogs on, and what is the best breed of hogs not to raise? I want to be sure that I approach this endeavor in keeping with all governmental policies. I would prefer not to raise razorbacks, but if that is not a good breed not to raise, then I will just as gladly not raise Yorkshires or Durocs.
As I see it, the hardest part of this program will be in keeping an accurate inventory of how many hogs I haven't raised. My friend, Peterson, is very joyful about the future.
of the business. He has been raising hogs for twenty years or so, and the best he ever made on them was $422 in 1968, until this year when he got your check for $1000 for not raising hogs.
If I get $1000 for not raising 50 hogs, will I get $2000 for not raising 100 hogs? I plan to operate on a small scale at first, holding myself down to about 4000 hogs not raised, which will mean about $80,000 the first year. Then I can afford an airplane.
Now another thing, these hogs I will not raise will not eat 100,000 bushels of corn. I understand that you also pay farmers for not raising corn and wheat. Will I qualify for payments for not raising wheat and corn not to feed the 4000 hogs I am not going to raise?
Also, I am considering the "not milking cows" business, so send me any information you have on that too.
In view of these circumstances, you understand that I will be totally unemployed and plan to file for unemployment and food stamps.
Be assured you will have my vote in the coming election.
Patriotically Yours,
J. B. Lee, Jr
P.S. Would you please notify me when you plan to distribute more free cheese?
Hat tip to Jim Monneyham over at the Tennessean
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper
“It’s the presumption that Obama knows how all these industries ought to be operating better than people who have spent their lives in those industries, and a general cockiness going back to before he was president, and the fact that he has no experience whatever in managing anything. Only someone who has never had the responsibility for managing anything could believe he could manage just about everything.” - Thomas Sowell in Reason Magazine
