I've seen this map before, and I'm not entirely sure of the whole story regarding what is being shown, but I recall an explanation to the effect that the regualr dots are recipients of crop subsidies, and the really large dots represent extra large of subsidies to those particular recipients---in seven figures or something to that effect.Originally Posted by Freak Out
This is where I found the map...Is that map saying that people in Manhattan get farm subsidies? Gov't assistance or money? If that's the case ... WTF? What do they grow there? Another example of gov't waste.
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdaf...RM_BILL_FORUMS
I have not had the time to dig into what the hell we are actually being shown.
I did fire off an email asking for some clarification on the pdf but it's almost 8pm there now.
A simple explanation---aside from scamming and graft, which probably accounts for a potion of it---is that the farm subsidies are paid to owners of farmable land even if they are absentee owners. Surely a person in NYC could own a parcel of land upstate or out of state that is farmable, and might be receiving some kind of farm subsidy payment. This is especially credible given the fact that some (perhaps most or all) farm subsidies take the form of direct payments to land owners on the condition that they NOT farm the land, so as to artifically lower supply and therefore prop up prices. The kind of people who are most likely to take advantage of such a program, you would think, are the absentee owners who are not farming the land anyway, and take these payments in leiu of leasing the land to local farmers who would plant on it. I don't know for certain if this is the major contributing factor, but it would be my guess.
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