JERRY HEATH: A wake-up call on the U.S. farm bill

In the past few weeks, I have read in The Herald Squawkbox and overheard several people complaining about the government cutting 1 percent off food stamps. I doubt very seriously they know how much money that is, but I’m going to tell them — it’s $7.56 billion.

These people even went so far as to suggest the government cut the farm bill in half and stop paying out all that crop insurance to those farmers plagued by drought and other unforeseen setbacks, and leave food stamps alone.

Well, I have a wake-up call that you folks complaining about the $956 billion farm bill can think about while you are eating your bacon and eggs, whole-grain muffin or Corn Flakes, none of which, by the way, would be here without the farmer.

Crop insurance payouts are only 4.9 percent, or $89.8 billion, of the farm bill. Six percent, or $56 billion, goes to conservation; 0.9 percent, or $8.2 billion, goes to what they call “everything else,” and then we have 4.6 percent, $4.4 billion, going to the commodity program, and we know what that is.

But here’s what you’ve been waiting for — 79.2 percent, $756 billion, goes to what? Food stamps!

Do you still want to cut the farm bill?

When you complain about a farmer, don’t talk with your mouth full! Farmers work very hard for the life they live and it’s not written in stone there will be a payoff waiting.

JERRY HEATH

Dawson