The role of the USDA?

[roarintiger1]

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/agencies/a/usdapage.htm

I am questioning if the first sentence in this link is really true anymore.

A lot of negativity about the USDA has surfaced in the last several years.  Especially when it comes to their archaic methods of computing acreage and yields.  Not to mention their predictions of record crops and carryover bushels before the crops are even planted.

Does their work matter?

Has their role changed?

Are there government leaders out there willing to buck the system of this department and make changes?

Of course there are some good things that the USDA has done and still does. Do the positives outweigh the negatives?

What are your thoughts?

[BA Deere]

Well Roarin, the USDA is first and for most a government vehicle to achieve a "cheap food policy" for the country. They got us running on a treadmill but we never catch the carrot.  USDA is never wrong, they can always seem to find a 300 million bushel stash to pull out of their hindend to make the books balance. 

The farm programs don`t support farm income without production, either "production history" or current production.  The more you`ve produced in the past the juicier carrot they dangle in front of you and if you`re really good they let you have a bite every now and then. 

[clayton58]

Well the corn growers, wheat growers,and other commodity organizations make it sound like we depend on usda for our very existence. If that's the case I guess we need to put up with there numbers BS or not. They do throw money around whether we need it or not. Example is paying 3 months livestock feed deficiency payment when we've had the wettest summer for quite a number of years. But I don't see much advocacy for agriculture from usda