Amidst all the smoke about tearing down trade barriers and subsidizing our family farmers, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that none of this works unless there is a fair apportioning of ultimate values.
As long as merger mania goes unchecked, market power will go to fewer and fewer hands and the family farmer is going to get shortchanged. The power buyers in the market dictate that commodity prices will never be high enough, even with government subsidizes included.
Unless we enforce anti-trust laws and bring about valid price discovery, subsidies intended for producers will be consumed by the global monopolies and farmers will continue to be put out of business.
Why do we allow this to go on? The writing has been on the wall for years, and our country can't get together and do something about it. Is our government and the public that it supposedly represents on the side of the "Big Wheels'' or the little guy? -- Randy Olson, Sunburg, Minn.
