The "Farm" bill and your health, physical and otherwise

the 2012 edition of the nation's farm bill is still making its way through Congress and is getting more depressing by the minute.  That is if you care about the health and well being of most of the American people and the land which is used to grow ingredients for the foodlike substances many of us eat every day.   In an audacious display of mendacity, the house of representatives has managed to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and add a subsidized insurance program guaranteed to cost taxpayers billions in the short and long run.  The stupidity of the SNAP cut is really breathtaking.  In a struggling economy, people on food stamps generally spend the grants as soon as they get them, thereby generating needed economic activity.  Besides that, most of the eligible applicants for this aid are children who desperately need the nutrition these grants provide.  Hungry children do not learn as well as those with adequate food.  In addition to this atrocity, the new bill provides subsidized crop insurance to those who plant commodity crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat.  While I agree that agriculture is way more risky than almost any other human endeavor and there should be some income support to struggling farmers, the advent of $8.00 corn and ethanol have made most farmers rather prosperous.  Besides, we are not talking about a guy and mule out on the back 40.  Most commodity growers today are multimillionaires who oversee thousands of acres of corn.  The idea of providing them with subsidized insurance is laughable if it weren't so fraught with danger for the nation's farmland.  It's a heads I win, tails I win scenario.  If they bring in a bumper crop, the farm is wildly profitable.  If there is a flood or drought or hailstorm, it will still be somewhat profitable thanks to insurance provided by Uncle Sugar.  If I had highly erodible land which would only bring in a crop once every 5 years, I would still plant it and collect the insurance.  What a scam.  This is our democracy at work.  Just sayin'.