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  • Get the facts
    • Fixing the 2012 Farm Bill
    • The taxpayer and economic welfare costs of Price Loss Coverage and Supplementary Coverage Programs
    • Why crop insurance costs too much
    • How farm policy undermines free trade
    • Direct payments and Title I farm programs
    • How US agricultural policy hurts the developing world
    • The costs and benefits of US ethanol subsidies
    • The case for increased agricultural R&D spending
    • A SURE invitation to wasteful spending
    • Is there any case for ag subsidies?
    • The costly benefits of the US sugar program
    • The folly of US dairy policy
    • How to reform Title II of the farm bill
    • Market structure and competition in the US food industries
    • US food and nutrition programs
    • The ACRE Program — A disaster in waiting
    • The taxpayer and economic welfare costs of shallow-loss farming programs
  • How Congress milks taxpayers
  • Who wins?
  • Take the quiz
  • Learn more

Test your farm bill knowledge

Americans pay billions every year to farming interests to maximize the incomes of a select few. This inherently unfair market manipulation lets farming interests play the system to enrich themselves, all on the taxpayer’s dime. It also gives preferential treatment by eliminating risk for one industry — agriculture. Test your knowledge of the farming industry’s advantages with the American Boondoggle quiz.

1) In 2010, the median American household income was $49,445. What did the median farm household earn in 2010?
2) Taxpayers cover about 58 percent of farmers' crop insurance payments. How much did that add up to in the four-year farm bill passed into law in 2008?
3) What percentage of counties in the U.S. received disaster aid between 2005 and 2009?
4) Because of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard, some of America's corn is grown expressly for fuel, not food. What percentage of America's corn crops are grown for ethanol?
5) The U.S. consumed 134 billion gallons of gasoline in 2011. How many billions of gallons of corn starch are projected to be used to create biofuel in 2012?
6) How much do farmers receive from taxpayers, on average, for each crop insurance policy they purchase?
7) The U.S. price for sugar has been double the rest of the world for more than 30 years. What is the estimated premium U.S. consumers pay every year because of the sugar program?
8) The "deadweight" loss of overpayments for sugar is about $1.3 billion per year. What percentage does that represent of the total estimated value of refined sugar in the U.S. in 2009?
9) Sugar cane accounts for 46 percent of sugar production in the U.S. What percentage of sugar cane farms are larger than 500 acres?
10) Which state's farmers received the most taxpayer dollars for their crop insurance policies in 2011?
11) Some farmers are paid to let their fields lie fallow. Which state had the highest number of farmers paid to not grow crops for the past five years?
12) Under the proposed shallow-loss program, farmers would be paid if crop revenues fell between 79 and 89% of their five-year average. In August 2012, corn was priced between $7.80 and $8.31 per bushel. What was their five-year average from 2006-2011?

Agriculture policy doesn’t typically make headlines. That needs to change.

It's no exaggeration to say that this year's farm bill is an example of exactly what’s wrong with Washington. It embodies the two biggest threats to American free enterprise today: the heavy-handed central planning of statism and competition-destroying beggar-thy-neighbor cronyism. From the $5.6 billion spent annually on crop insurance subsidies to the $1.3 billion we spend on milk subsidies, American agriculture policy is replete with cronyism and special interest subsidies.

It's not fair, it's bad economics and it's bad policy.

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Educate Yourself

  • Cash cow: How Congress milks taxpayers in the 2012 farm bill
    Cash cow: How Congress milks taxpayers in the 2012 farm bill
  • What is the 2012 Farm Bill?
    What is the 2012 Farm Bill?
  • Why Crop Insurance Costs Too Much
    Why Crop Insurance Costs Too Much

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