This predictable cash flow was supposed to transition farmers from farming the government to growing only what they could profitably market. Today, government payments compose a record amount of net farm income. Annual additional support payments have become the norm and agriculture is less market oriented than before. Similar paradoxes exist in other policy areas. Corporate ownership models can help a farm family with inheritance issues, provide opportunities to fully deduct employee benefits like health insurance and retirement funds, and allow transfers of interests in real estate without property transfer taxes.
Corporate ownership can also provide protection of personal assets from liability.
Our attempts to win reforms in Vermont's landowner liability laws, thwarted by the lawyers lobby, sought to protect landowners who do not post their property from being sued by someone hurt on the farm through no intent of the owner. Environmental regulations often force small family farms out of business because the costs of the technologies cannot be supported by the farming operation. Thankfully, the state of Vermont has been a strong financial partner in cost sharing manure pits and milk house waste systems on farms. This investment has no doubt paid dividends both in terms of water quality and the rural farm economy. One of the most costly policy debacles in Vermont concerning rural land use has been our approach to septic disposal.