Today's farm programs have hardly changed over fifty years, despite remarkable transformations in economic conditions in U.S. agriculture. These surpluses of wheat, corn, butter, cheese, and other products result directly from price supports.
Farm programs are grotesquely schizophrenic.
Farm programs not only are costly to consumers and taxpayers, they also distort the pattern of production both regionally and on individual farms. For instance, they encourage increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that create unnecessary environmental hazards. Price supports and other farm programs do not help farming's long-run profitability. Instead they increase production costs as government benefits are incorporated into higher prices for land and other inputs. The programs primarily generate short-term gains to owners of agricultural real estate and other farm assets.