Bullet Points:

• Continue reasonable farm subsidies, and make all farming available for subsidies.
• Increase grants for cellulosic technology
• Let's make some Iowa Corn Sheiks!

I am in support of giving farmers subsidies to grow crops given the tremendous variability of the futures market.  The vagaries of weather, the high cost of farm equipment, seed and fertilizers along with herbicides, the total cost of getting a crop in is really astronomical.  If you couple that with rising cost of farm land to record levels, it means that it is almost impossible for new farmers to break into the business.  Essentially you have to inherit your land or start with a very small piece of land and work your way up piecemeal.  And, of course, if you’re starting out as a farmer and the futures market tumbles like they did in pork several years ago, you can wipe out many farms and farmers because one crop did not pan out the way you had anticipated.
 
However, most subsidies go to soybeans and corn, so that’s what most farmers produce.  I believe that if you want to declare yourself a farmer, farming must be your full time occupation and that any crop that you raise should be considered for subsidy status.  I would also link subsidies to the impact your farming methods have on the environment.  I believe that the subsidies should be given to farmers who don’t destroy wetland, but encourage its natural progression and the use of no till, terracing, and raising live stock in a humane way.
 
Coupled with this, I would encourage cellulosic ethanol technology which can produce up to 32 times the amount of energy than an equivalent amount of oil.  If we switch to cellulosic technology, we’re not actually using the human consumable or animal consumable part of the plant.  We are using the extraneous parts of the plant that gets left behind on the fields.
 
I also would reward farmers for utilizing organic technologies to control weeds and pests and remote growth of their product.
 
Americans are obsessed with “bigger and better”.  And the problem is that most live stock is fed hormones and antibiotics in order to ensure that they become the biggest they can be.  And I am not entirely convinced that is a “healthy for humans” approach.  I do believe that utilizing ethanol from the human and animal consumable parts of the plant will drive up food prices.  However, using the non-consumable parts of the plant and developing cellulosic technology would be a great first step on the way to complete energy independence for all Americans.