Washington Post Farm Policy Stories: A Case Study in Urban Legend: Part 4 by Jeff Harrison, of Combest-Sell and Associates AgWeb.com U.S. Farm Policy Is About Providing America with the Safest, Most Abundant, Most Affordable Food Supply in the World And About U.S. Jobs, Economic Growth, and Global Competitiveness. When the U.S. manufacturing sector lost roughly 3 million American jobs to offshoring, the U.S. government responded with passage of the American Jobs Protection Act - containing tax benefits that cost about the same as the 2002 Farm Bill. The bill was designed to help U.S. manufacturers compete on a lopsided global playing field. There was little if any talk of corporate welfare. And there was no discussion about limiting benefits under the bill to businesses of a size and scope not seen since Charles Dickens. This stands in sharp contrast to the treatment of the 2002 Farm Bill, which was and continues to be unfairly labeled by some as corporate welfare, while remaining the constant subject of efforts to withhold its benefits to any U.S. farmer who even attempts to achieve the economies of scale needed to compete in the world today. Never mind that U.S. farm policy helps create 25 million good paying and stable American jobs, producing $3.5 trillion in economic activity, and accounting for 15% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. Never mind that the world agricultural market is the most distorted of all economic sectors, with U.S. farmers facing foreign subsidies and tariffs 5 and 6 times higher than those of the U.S., with some even higher. Never mind that even The Wall Street Journal observed in a December 19, 2003 article that the farm economy had helped rescue the national economy by mitigating the economic shock caused by the crisis in the U.S. manufacturing sector. President John F. Kennedy said, "Our farmers deserve praise, not condemnation; and their efficiency should be cause for gratitude, not something for which they are penalized." President Kennedy was right. Printed With Permission.