Congressman Ron Kind says Wisconsin farmers are getting short changed by a federal farm subsidy system is seriously out of whack. “Seventy percent of agriculture producers . . are getting no subsidy payments at all,” says the La Crosse Democrat. “The vast bulk, eighty percent, of the subsidy payments are going to just 15 states. Wisconsin isn't one of them.” Kind says a new database launched by the Environmental Working Group allows us to easily see just who's getting subsidies.
Redirecting agricultural subsides is a major component of new farm policy reform legislation proposed by Kind. He concedes there will be plenty of opposition from powerful special interest groups. “They know how to work Capitol Hill,” he says. But, Kind believes this is the right time to reform farm policy: commodity prices are high and farm income is stable.