9 Forces Driving More
by vetting nominations requiring congressional approval. Lincoln may
have believed that USDA was all about the people’s agenda, but its most
senior managers now come from mainstream agribusiness.
So what has become of norms that reminded businesses and poli-
ticians that individual actions affect the greater society? In recent
decades, businesses have grown fond of saying that their duty is to share-
holders, which is a clever way of rejecting responsibility for the conse-
quences of single-minded self-interest. As Harvard business strategy
and competitiveness professor Michael Porter has written, “How else
could companies overlook the well-being of their customers, the deple-
tion of natural resources vital to their businesses, the viability of key
suppliers, or the economic distress of the communities in which they
produce and sell?”
In fairness to food producers, accepting responsibility for the public
interest is a hard sell when government programs and legislation cater
so prominently to self-interest. With the original farm bill objectives
of higher farm income and stable food prices squarely behind us,
politicians have time and again pledged to pare back future subsidies
and protections in the face of rising federal deficits.
Thus, the 199 Farm Bill, labeled the “Freedom to Farm Bill,” was
sold as weaning farm production off federal subsidies. Recipients of
direct payments were now prohibited from planting fruits and vegeta-
bles, but otherwise these farmers could plant any crop they wanted—or
no crops at all. Landowners would still receive federal payments, but this
was supposed to be a temporary measure that would give farmers time
and money to adjust to market prices when government subsidies ended,
and to ready their operations to compete with producers worldwide.
Optimism at the time ran high. The mantra of many farmers regarding
the new approach was “Bring it on.”
Congress did, and for four years direct payments were made no
matter what grains were grown or not grown. Then market prices fell
and emergency and loan-deficiency payouts were once again parceled
out, in addition to the direct payments. In the two succeeding farm bills,
the once-temporary direct payments continued.