The Department of Agriculture spends over $150 billion dollars per year on various programs related to agriculture and food. It spends tens of billions on farm subsidies that largely go to growers of just a few crops: wheat, corn, soybeans, rice, and cotton. Beyond this, it subsidizes food through the federal food stamp program, which is rife with waste and corruption. It also regulates many agricultural products, most notably milk and sugar, setting minimum prices which artificially keep food prices high for consumers.
The federal government has little reason to be engaging in any of these activities, which should be left to the states in the case of food stamps, or eliminated entirely in the case of regulations or subsidies. This could save taxpayers $140 billion per year. To that end we’ve created a short video which makes these and other points, which you can watch below:
