A new bill would cut the 51-cent-a-gallon ethanol subsidy to 45 cents, according to news reports. Farmers who make up to $2.5 million are eligible for subsidies, but the bill would drop eligibility to $1 million or less.
Tom Buis, president of the National Farmer's Union and a former corn farmer from Indiana, defended farmers before the committee.
"Everybody seems to be wanting to blame the farmer for everything bad happening in America and around the world," said Buis. "Some people think that profit should be a dirty word only for American farmers."
- YaoYao: Profit is not a dirty word. But profit on the back of a massive taxpayer subsidy by people earning more than $1Million a year, is dirty.
Corn farmers have been blamed for everything from the rising price of beer in the United States to pasta riots in Italy, Buis said. But, he added, half of all corn is used to cattle feed and much of it is used for soda syrup.
"To make the equation that corn is taking food out of people's mouths is a real stretch," Buis said.
- YaoYao: Right, so the cattle aren't destined for people's mouths either. The price of both meat and grain are shooting up because corn is planted instead of other grains, and corn ends up as ethanol. The real stretch is this man's believability
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