[vulturesrow]

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I'd be more favorably inclined if they could guarantee these subsidies only went to small farmers. Much of the subsidies are received by large agriculture conglomerates that definitely dont need the subsidies or by people "playing farmer" in order to receive the subsidies (surprise surprise).

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These two sentences are completely contradictory. It *is* the small farmers who are only "playing farmer" in order to receive the subsidies. They cannot compete without handouts. Hence they are only playing. They should get out and go do something productive instead of wasteful.

This is like saying you think the government should give subsidies to thousands of people who build kit cars in their garages becasue they can't compete with GM, Ford, and Toyota.

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I happen to think there is a societal benefit that isnt easily quantified by keeping small, family type farms afloat. I'm pretty sure you know what I meant by people "playing farmer", but let me know if you'd like me to spell it out. The car maker analogy isnt really relevant because the individual car maker has never been a part of the American tradition and communities arent built around groups of individual car makers, whereas many communities exist in the USA that are.