Minnesota Farmers Union

(March 9, 2009) - In his February 24, 2009 speech before Congress, President Obama said, "In this budget, we will...end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them." We were listening to the speech and when he said that we did a double take.

What did he mean?

Large agribusinesses like Monsanto, Cargill, ADM, AGCO, and Pioneer Seed don't receive direct payments. Direct payments are the current iteration of the AMTA (Agricultural Market Transition Act) payments that were made a part of the 1996 Farm Bill in order to entice farmers to support a radical reordering of farm programs. These payments are made to growers of the major crops (corn, soybeans, cotton, wheat, rice, etc.) so Obama wasn't talking about many large livestock producers, orchardists, and fruit and vegetable producers.

To our ears the wording was strange because, in most cases, we do not think of crop farmers, even the large ones, as "large agribusinesses." They may be incorporated to simplify tax and inheritance issues, but for the most part, they are family operations-hardly what comes to mind when the President talks about "large agribusinesses."