Thanks for the detailed and well balanced reply. As I said, usually on subjects like this what you read either tries to wrap it in patriotism and tell you how critical it is or denigrates it and says that the whole farm bill is a travesty. The truth is usually in the middle.
As a dual citizen, I often compare things in the two countries. I found
this written by the Australian government comparing the two. It is a couple of years old, but was interesting. This section was most applicable to this subject:
Agricultural policy in the United States is determined by the Agricultural Improvement Act, commonly known as the farm bill. The farm bill is typically in place for 5 years and sets the budget for US agricultural policy over that period. In December 2018 President Trump signed off on the 2018 farm bill.
The 2018 farm bill has a budget of US$428 billion for the 2018–2023 period, an increase of US$2 billion from the previous farm bill. The 2018 farm bill largely continues programs implemented in the 2014 farm bill.
The largest budgeted component of the farm bill is nutrition programs. Around 76% of total expenditures are projected for domestic food assistance programs. This is commonly known as the food stamps program and helps disadvantaged people afford food. However, there is no requirement for the government to purchase domestically produced food.
Other major programs are crop insurance (accounting for 9%), commodities (7%) and conservation programs (7%). These programs provide farmers with various forms of support or payments for environmental stewardship and are implemented in a way so as not to affect production decisions.
OECD producer support estimates show that US producer support was around 10% of gross farm receipts over 2016 to 2018, this compares with 2% in Australia. The OECD average was 18.5%.
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A few thoughts:
1. I didn't know that the huge majority of the farm bill was nutrition programs. Almost seems like the bill should have a different name.
2. Government support in the US is 10% of production compared to only 2% for Australia. But, both are well below average at 18.5%.
3. Crop Insurance in Australia appears to be all or nearly all private market. I wonder why that is a government program here?
4. Australian beef is mostly grass finished compared to here. I wonder why that is different, too?