An agricultural industry publication — Agri-Pulse — is trumpeting their poll today with the headline:
Poll: Farmers count on aid in new farm bill, back SNAP cut
It was a poll of 605 farmers and 59% supported cutting SNAP. And, surprise, they really wanted more money for themselves. (Sorry, it is paywalled but you can get a 30 day trial subscription. Article is here)
A majority wanted more funding for promoting sales of US farm products, almost a majority wanted an increase in farm subsidies, and nearly the same amount wanted in an increase in “reference prices” — a veiled term for the minimum price farmers should expect.
Yep, cut $30 billion from support for hungry families but increase funding for farmers to be able to get more for their crops.
Oh, and no shock here, 61% of respondents self-identified as Republicans while 10% self-identified as Democrats. The respondents had to have at least $100,000 in gross farm income.
The other part of this also comes as no shock — 13% (Dems plus a little) strongly agreed they would need to change farming practices due to climate change. 29% somewhat agreed while 32% don’t believe they will have to change at all — the rest were “unsure”. Yep, the Dems and non-Rs see the train coming at them, the R’s have their heads in the sand. What does that say about future food security if almost 2/3 think they won’t have any impact from climate change?