High On The Hog?

When the House of Representatives passed a compromise five year farm bill in a vote of 251-166 this week several Representatives said they felt it was a good compromise - preserving farm subsidies and making modest food stamp cuts. On the flip side Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said that the bill slashes the most important anti-hunger program in the nation while rewarding the millionaire and billionaire farmers who are eating high on the hog. Come again?! I would imagine that her comment left many farmers and ranchers blinking in shock and then found them reaching for their bank statements to see if they had missed something. Millionaires and billionaires?! As with any long standing industry there are a small portion of those who fly high above the norm when it comes to financial standing, but for DeLauro to say that all farmers and ranchers are living high on the hog as millionaires or billionaires is political posturing at its worst. I found House Ag Committee Chairman Lucas’s statement quite to the point, “No matter how much money we spend on supplemental programs to make sure our fellow citizens have enough to eat, and that is very important, NEVER forget - if there’s not product on shelf, if there’s not meat in the case, if there’s not vegetables or fruit available, it doesn’t matter how much you subsidize. The food has to be there!”