My husband is 4th generation on original family land. We are not incorporated.

Corn prices are the same (WITH subsidies) today as they were the year I was married (30 years ago). Tractor prices, fertilizer, etc. are not, by a huge margin. Our first 120 horse tractor: $27,000. The one we bought last year: $112,000 (same HP) Yields have increased but only about 70%.

When my husband's father dies we will not be able to pay the estate taxes and keep farming.

My husband is working a 40+ hour a week job and farming on top of it. ALL the farmers we know under 60 are also working two or more jobs per family *besides* farming.

We pay, in cash, $10,000 per year for self-employed health insurance. That is the deal employers around here cut to employ farmers - we get extra time off in the spring and fall (usually 4 weeks, total) and they don't provide insurance.

We will not farm (even without the estate taxes) after my in-laws are gone because we are sick of govt. regs, govt. programs that *we* can't even understand, double social security, etc., etc. More and more younger farmers feel the same way.

So, my first question is: given that we could import all our food and not use any government help for farmers, do you think this is a good idea? At this point in history should we be dependant on others or should we maintain the ability to feed ourselves as a country?

Second question: Do you believe that as family farmers disappear (a notoriously hard group to effectively organize, or even get to agree on anything)food prices will go down and government involvement will be less? I maintain that when the only entity raising beef is Swift-Premium, who will have a stall-to-slaughter-house-to-store operation, prices will climb dramatically.

Sorry this is so long.

See my post on this here. It started off as a response to this, but got too long.

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