• phase down and terminate crop subsidies, a process that was supposed to begin with passage of the 1996 Freedom to Farm Act;

• move toward a system of private insurance and use of other financial instruments to protect farmers against market and weather fluctuations; and

• eliminate federal controls that perpetuate producer cartels in markets such as those for milk and sugar.

• eliminate government crop insurance programs;

• reduce greatly the per farm subsidy cap as a first step to control the excesses of federal agriculture subsidies;

• repeal the crop price supports included in the 2002 farm law, which are unnecessary add-ons to existing subsidy mechanisms;

• eliminate trade protections on agricultural goods while working through the World Trade Organization to pursue liberalization in global markets

On May 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln established the independent Department of Agriculture to be headed by a Commissioner without Cabinet status. Lincoln called it the "people's department." In the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank. In 1887, the House of Representatives and Senate passed bills giving Cabinet status to the Department of Agriculture and Labor, but the bill was killed in conference committee after farm interests objected to the addition of labor. Finally, on February 9, 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level.
from United States Department of Agriculture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The bulk of the USDA budget is a federal welfare program: Food Stamps. The federal government takes money from people in Missouri, buys food from farmers and processors in Wisconsin, and gives it to the poor in California. Authorization for this redistribution of wealth is found in the constitution -- of the Soviet Union.

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