Farm Boy 2
Elio Fan
Although it's a pleasant thought to think corn growing is a Mom and Pop operation, It's large conglomerates with their Industrialized food production that drives the market, and for sure, any money making use of their product wouldn't enter the discussion. Further, it's really our government that owns the corn, being the most heavily subsidized "farm" product.
Netflix "King Corn", great little flic that shares the reality of this risk free business operates-
" subsidized crops benefit from an increasingly complex layering of subsidy programs begun in the 1930s and altered haphazardly ever since. The primary subsidy system today consists of the following elements, each of which will be explained in more detail below.
- Direct payments are paid at a set rate every year regardless of conditions.
- Counter-cyclical payments are triggered when market prices fall below certain thresholds.
- A new revenue assurance program provides for overall profitability for a given crop.
- Marketing loans offer very favorable terms whereby farmers can realize tremendous gains through loan deficiency payments (LDPs) and commodity certificates.
- Disaster payments recoup large losses due to natural phenomena. And the government subsidizes crop insurance to further insulate farmers from risk."
As for subsidies, you might want to look at the current farm bill, there has been a lot of changes and simplifications in the newest farm[ just passed this year] bill from the last one. Crop insurance in the most utilized item and it is subsidized, just like flood and hurricane insurance is.