Oh yeah, I live in the city so I don't get any aid.
When a drought left pastures in a handful of Plains states parched in 2003, ranchers turned to the federal government for help. Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture quickly responded with what they considered an innovative plan.
They decided to dip into massive stockpiles of powdered milk that the agency had stored in warehouses nationwide as part of its milk price-support program. Livestock owners could get the protein-rich commodity free and feed it to their cattle and calves. The milk would help ranchers weather the drought while the government reduced its growing stockpile.
But within months, the program spawned a lucrative secondary market in which ranchers, feed dealers and brokers began trading the powdered milk in a daisy chain of transactions, generating millions of dollars in profits. Tens of millions of pounds of powdered milk intended solely for livestock owners in drought-stricken states went to states with no drought or were sold to middlemen in Mexico and other countries, a Washington Post investigation found.
Question. Could this be why Ann M. Veneman (former Agriculture Secretary resigned last year?
Government cites successes in cattle not starving or being slaughtered, but farmers got little of the value of the powdered milk while feed dealers and brokers made most of the money garnered from the plan.
So who was hurt? The American taxpayer for one. Apparently more aid could have been given to the ranchers for less and why are we still buying up milk products with taxpayer money thereby increasing the price of milk to poor people?
Also see:
No Drought Required For Federal Drought Aid
And:
Report: Farm Aid is the new Welfare, Meth the new Crack, Rural Areas the new Ghettos