Issue Position: Agriculture

Issue Position

California's agriculture industry suffers severely from excess regulation at all levels of government. For example, water is absolutely essential to grow anything, yet excessive environmental legislation combined with an activist judiciary and a non-native smelt are turning thousands upon thousands of acres of farmland in the Central Valley into a dust bowl. America's farmers know and respect their land. We must again give our farmers the freedom to use their own land without the burden of excess regulation.

American's farmers are the best in the World. They must be given the freedom to export their products to other countries by confronting the protectionist trade policies of other countries especially in Europe and Asia.

Individual freedom creates free markets in which each player makes his or her own decisions and bears the consequences without the government picking favorites. However, our government spends around $ 20 billion each year on farm subsidies for a handful of select crops. This distorts the market, leads to artificially high prices for consumers and in general wastes public funds. Of course, a sudden stop of all subsidies would severely disrupt American agriculture, but we must start weaning American agriculture off of subsidies today so that our agriculture has the incentive to produce and compete tomorrow.

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