Farm subsidies: Family farms need help, grower says

Wheat farmer says payments put food on producers' tables

By DAN WHEAT

Capital Press

WATERVILLE, Wash. -- Gary Polson grew up on the family farm north of Waterville. He loves farming but fears a loss of direct federal payments would threaten his farm's ability to survive.

Polson, 51, has been a full-time wheat farmer for 14 years. Before that he farmed part time while working on highway maintenance for the Washington State Department of Transportation.

His wife, Lauren, worked as a medical transcriptionist for Wenatchee Valley Medical Center before her job was phased out in March. It represented 35 to 40 percent of their total income. She now works as a part-time travel agent.

With their oldest daughter out of the house, the second in college and their son still at home, the Polsons say direct payments have always been, and still are, an important part of their income.

The subsidy, based on production, is less than 25 percent of their farm income, he said.

Payment amounts have remained fairly static over the years, but the percentage of the farm's income they represent fluctuates as wheat prices change.

For more than 30 years, prices remained relatively flat at about $3.50 a bushel, which many times was at or below the cost of production. During those years direct payments put food on the tables of many farmers, Polson said.

"It's crazy," Polson said. "The politicians and the public believe that just because we have had good prices for three years ($6 to $7 a bushel now), that all of a sudden farmers are rich, that we are loaded. It's just not true. Look at the costs."

Fertilizer prices are at or near an all-time high with nitrogen at 60 cents a pound, he said. Diesel fuel prices are high.

"I can't remember what it was a month ago, the last time I filled my (farm) tanks. I just paid it and got sick," Polson said. "When harvest comes and you're cutting wheat and seeding (next year's crop), we will be pulling 300 to 400 gallons of diesel a day. That's up to two or three weeks and it's huge. I have to burn that fuel to harvest and seed. I just pray it's a good crop."

An added cost this year was spraying all of his fields with fungicide to combat stripe rust.

Polson farms 6,400 acres with his brother, Lynn.

"I don't know anyone else who took the same income for 30 years and made a living except the farmer," Polson said. "We learned to get by. I don't know too many farmers with new combines out in this area."

The Waterville Plateau is still dotted with family wheat farms -- far fewer than a century or even half a century ago, but still owned by families, not large corporations.

"If the federal government takes away direct payments, I think family farms would go by the wayside and there'd be just big corporate farms," Polson said.

Polson pointed out several problems for farmers. Wheat farmers don't determine their sale price, only when to sell. The price is set by supply and demand and heavily influenced by stock market speculators. The federal government imposes sanctions against some foreign governments, preventing U.S. wheat from being sold there.

"If they would quit doing that it might be a fairer system and we wouldn't need payments," Polson said.

Direct payments to wheat farmers are a safety net in good times and a necessity in lean times, he said.

"If the market and prices stayed strong and costs stayed down, we might get by without them," he said. "But our kids might not go to college and we probably won't replace equipment.

"What politician knows if prices will stay at sustainable levels? If they drop, will they hand out money again? Probably not."

He attributed much of the criticism of direct payments to ignorance about the USDA's budget.

"How many people know that when Congress debates a farm bill, basically three-fourths is for nutrition assistance to the general public and very little goes to the farmer?" he said.

He cited food stamps, free and subsidized school lunches and the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.

"They may have to look at direct payments as a food program because it puts food on our table so we can grow food at a low price," he said.