"Communism 101" - U.S. Department of Agriculture taking 47% of a farmer's harvest is 'legal'.

"Communism 101" - U.S. Department of Agriculture taking 47% of a farmer's harvest is 'legal'. (WSJ).

Earlier this month the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture taking 47% of a farmer's harvest does not violate the Fifth Amendment's takings clause as long as the government aims to drive up crop prices. 

The May 9 decision was the latest absurdity in a decade-long legal battle pitting California raisin growers Marvin and Lena Horne against the USDA's outmoded raisin regulatory regime.

Under current law, the 1930s-era federally authorized Raisin Administrative Committee can commandeer up to half of a farmer's harvest as a "reserve"—to purportedly stabilize markets and prevent gluts. The Hornes were fined almost $700,000 for refusing to surrender control of 47% of their 2002 harvest to the government committee and 30% of the harvest the following year. After judges declared that the Hornes could not sue in federal court for unjust takings—i.e., government confiscation without just compensation—the case landed in the Supreme Court.

Last June the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that California raisin growers have standing to file a takings claim in federal court. Even liberal justices were amazed at the heavy-handed, archaic nature of the regulatory regime. During oral arguments, Justice Stephen Breyer declared: "I can't believe that Congress wanted the taxpayers to pay for a program that's going to mean they have to pay higher prices as consumers." Justice Elena Kagan suggested that the statute authorizing the raisin cartel could be "the world's most outdated law."

Writing as if they were inspired by Justice Kagan's quip, the Ninth Circuit panel reached back a hundred years to justify perpetuating federal control of the raisin business. The decision declared, "Raisin prices rose rapidly between 1914 and 1920, peaking in 1921 at $235 per ton.

This surge in prices spurred increased production, which in turn caused prices to plummet back down to between $40 and $60 per ton." Crop prices skyrocketed during those years in large part because the World War I-era U.S. Food Administration cornered markets and vastly inflated demand by providing cheap credit to European allies to purchase boatloads of harvests. Federal intervention spurred a boom and bust that ravaged American farmers in the early 1920s..Hmmm.....First you grab the land, then you take the mortgages and then you go after the 'Kulaks'.Read the full story here

Farmers protest fall in milk prices by spraying Brussels police from cow's udder

Farmers protest fall in milk prices by spraying Brussels police from cow's udder.(Telegraph). Over 2,500 farmers from across the EU blockaded the area outside the European Union's headquarters, burning tires and hay outside an emergency meeting of farm ministers. They drove hundreds of tractors to the centre of Brussels and covered the streets in milk and manure. The jittery cow, frightened by firecrackers, sprang loose and chased an office worker down the street. The farmers used heavy tractors to block major highways into Brussels and streets in the urban centre, creating traffic chaos for dozens of miles outside the city for much of the day, keeping tens of thousands of commuters moving at a snail's pace. The city has a history of violent protests by farmers and there was a massive police presence that further choked roads throughout the capital. The farmers' major demand - limiting production through quotas to drive up prices - met with no success. EU officials said they still intend to gradually create freer markets for European farm products. "There will be no backtracking," said Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU Farm Commissioner. Farmers want regulations to shield them from market fluctuations and have been protesting for weeks, arguing production costs are currently up to twice as high as market prices. They have dumped tens of millions of gallons of milk into streets and fields to highlight their plight. Read the full story here.