Oh, good.

During President Obama’s first term in office, participation in the federal food stamp program increased from about 32 million Americans in 2009 to approximately 48 million by October of 2012 — an average growth rate of just over 11,000 recipients per day, CNS News reports. In dollars, that translates into $55 billion spent on the [...]

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Subsidies gone sour.

A few weeks back, Department of Agriculture Secretary Vilsack lamented the declining influence of rural America and the agricultural lobby’s inability to push next year’s farm bill through Congress. What he conspicuously failed to mention, of course, is that the farm bill and the USDA’s many decades-old agricultural programs in general (numbering in the hundreds [...]

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"Investments."

I’ve often wondered how it is that, whenever we get to talking about ways to downsize the federal bureaucracy and balance the national budget, the Department of Agriculture always seems to escape any major scrutiny. I suppose that, in the grand scheme of things, their many meddlesome programs don’t run up nearly the same tab [...]

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“Never in my life would I have expected USDA to be opposed to farmers and ranchers."

Yes, that would be the US Department of Agriculture, which is supposed to promote agriculture.  Agriculture includes cattle ranching as well as farming (and dairies!).  One of the most significant duties of the USDA is to rate the quality of meat so that consumers can be sure they’re eating healthy food.  So why did the [...]

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Getting people back on their feet or increasing government dependence?

Yesterday, Daily Caller reported that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is using tax dollars to push the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps, in Spanish advertisements. This series of advertisements, while not new (they have been out since 2008), is another bit of controversy surrounding the ever-more expansive and [...]

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But don't worry, it's for green jobs!

I find myself confused. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that it will provide a $25 million loan guarantee to support the manufacture of a sweetener found in diet soda. From the USDA press release: WASHINGTON, June 18, 2012 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA has approved a loan guarantee of [...]

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In cahoots.

The Department of Agriculture has long been a defender of entrenched corporate welfare and special interests, but it’s okay, because they get to hide behind handy-dandy high-minded excuses, like “We’re preserving the family farm!” or “We’re ensuring a cheap and stable food supply!” Nevermind that farm subsidies primarily benefit large and wealthy agribusiness growers of [...]

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It's a party, and everyone's invited.

Once upon a time, I believe the case for food stamps was centered on the argument that, as decent human beings, we have a social obligation to come together and offer a lifeline to the absolute poorest among us and ensure that nobody is going hungry — at least while people get back on their [...]

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"Sticking it to Open Range"?

The Daily Caller follows up on its dot-connecting yesterday on the Obama administration’s efforts to make LightSquared pay off for its Democratic-donor backers with a look at the other side of crony capitalism.  Matthew Boyle tells the story of the original government effort to expand broadband to rural areas, Open Range, which partnered with GlobalStar, [...]

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Begun, the potato wars have.

Remember when food was tasty and being a kid was fun? In my own hazy, rose-colored memories of lunchtime at school, we used to eat ice-cream pizza with french-fried sprinkles. Learning was a pleasure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is proposing to eliminate the “white potato”—defined as any variety but the sweet potato—from federally subsidized [...]

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