Farm Subsidies at Record Levels As Congress Considers New Farm Bill

After six decades of rising subsidy levels and expansive regulatory controls, it appeared that Washington's role in agriculture would be reduced with the enactment of the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act. That act aimed to decrease subsidies over seven years and to move farming toward greater reliance on market supply and demand. Unfortunately, that promise collapsed in an orgy of supplemental spending bills that have increased federal farm subsidies to all-time highs. Total direct subsidy payments to farmers have soared to more than $20 billion per year the past three years, up from an average of$9 billion per year in the early 1990s. There is little justification for the special hold that the agricultural industry has on tax-payers' wallets. Other industries, such as the high-tech industry, are also risky and subject to large price swings but do not receive large-scale government subsidies. Moreover, farm households have higher incomes, on average, than do nonfarm U.S. households, and subsidies are skewed toward the largest and wealthiest farm businesses. Farm subsidies also subvert their own goal: farmers demand subsidies because of low market prices for their products, but subsidies themselves contribute to lower prices. As Congress works to reauthorize farm programs, it threatens to move further away from reform by institutionalizing high levels of farm welfare. Instead, Congress should push the farm sector back into the market economy by repealing federal farm subsidies

Fish assemblages found in tidal-creek and seagrass habitats in the Suwannee River estuary

Fish assemblages were investigated in tidal-creek and seagrass habitats in the Suwannee River estuary, Florida. A total of 91,571 fish representing 43 families were collected in monthly seine samples from January 1997 to December 1999. Tidal creeks supported greater densities of fish (3.89 fish/m2; 83% of total) than did seagrass habitats (0.93 fish/m2). We identified three distinct fish assemblages in each habitat: winter−spring, summer, and fall. Pinfish (Lagodon rhomboides), pigfish (Orthopristis chrysoptera), and syngnathids characterized seagrass assemblages, whereas spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli), silversides (Menidia spp.), mojarras (Eucinostomus spp.), and fundulids characterized tidal-creek habitats. Important recreational and commercial species such as striped mullet (Mugil cephalus) and red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) were found primarily in tidal creeks and were among the top 13 taxa in the fish assemblages found in the tidal-creek habitats. Tidal-creek and seagrass habitats in the Suwannee River estuary were found to support diverse fish assemblages. Seasonal patterns in occurrence, which were found to be associated with recruitment of early-life-history stages, were observed for many of the fish species