The poll question for this week should generate a lot of interest, “Should the latest farm bill be vetoed?” This is going to be a tough question after you read the lead story in today’s newsletter.
May 14, 2008; Page A20
We can't wait to hear how Members of Congress explain their vote this week for the new $300 billion farm bill. At a time when Americans are squeezed at the grocery store, they will now see more of their taxes flow to the very farmers profiting from these high food prices.
This year farm income is expected to reach an all-time high of $92.3 billion, an increase of 56% in two years, making growers perhaps the most undeserving welfare recipients in American history. But that won't stop this bill from passing the House and Senate by wide margins. Speaker Nancy Pelosi was once a farm subsidy skeptic, but she now has some 30 freshman Democrats from battleground rural districts to protect. So more than $10 billion a year in giveaways to agribusiness is a necessary taxpayer sacrifice to keep her majority.
Ms. Pelosi calls the bill "real reform," which is like calling Lindsay Lohan born again. For example: The bill perpetuates the so-called Hurricane Katrina gambit that allows farmers to lock in price-support payments at the lowest possible market price, and then sell their crops later at the highest possible price, and then pocket the high price and a payment from the government for the difference between the two. They in effect get paid twice for the same bushel of wheat
By RICHARD MULLINS The Tampa Tribune Published: May 13, 2008
Milk, check. Bread, check. And don't forget $100 million in backup generators.That's how much money at least one Florida grocery chain expects to spend on large electrical generators to keep stores operating in case a hurricane blows out some or all of Florida's electrical grid.
The investment will be worth it, company executives say, after some hard lessons from the active 2004 hurricane season when four storms walloped the state in close sequence.
The scenario that Publix and other grocery chains are trying to avoid: dark stores filled with rotting food and thousands of customers looking for supplies.
Although some chains are spending heavily on generators, others are taking a more cautious approach and buying a handful of portable generators to truck in if a storm strikes.
