Ben Lilliston of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy says subsidies have enabled farm prices to remain unrealistically low. It's allowing farmers to stay on the land and produce their crops at below cost prices. This in turn makes them eligible for even greater subsidies. Right now the bigger you are, the more money you get. The vast majority of subsidy programs are for crop growers and many farmers switch from raising livestock to growing crops to get the aid.
People quit raising hogs and raise crops.
One took a job in highway construction, and the other now works as a laborer on a hog farm. Serfling, who runs the 350-acre farm where he was born, raises livestock and grows corn, oats, alfalfa and pasture to feed his animals. As a livestock farmer Serfling would not be eligible for subsidies were it not for his crops. Many in the agricultural sector say federal subsidies have helped avoid a national farm crisis, but most agree the payments are not always reaching the right people. Politics Congress is now rushing to complete a new farm bill before mid-July.