Under the old allotment system, the going scam was to procure a large allotment(s) of tobacco, take out insurance on the whole, plant the whole, but only do what's needed to have a successful crop on a part. File an insurance claim for the rest & never have to work it. Example: Get 80 acres of allotments. Raise plants for all. Plant all. Only fertilize, sucker & spray a portion. Sell the good part. Collect insurance money on the other & not have to spend the time/money on materials & labor. Of course, you still have to buy the fertilizer & chemicals for all or you get caught. You just buy for other people & sell to them at a discounted price & it looks like you "tried" to raise all 80 acres.
I remember my dad caught a wild hair and grew soybeans one year when I was a kid on one small area of ours. Don't remember why.
Haha, was "non-food" ambiguous somehow? No, no subsidy for weed either. I have no idea if it is being subsidized here. I doubt it. The feds obviously won't, and CO is taxing the hell out of it so I don't think it would be subsidized.
Because it is in the Legumaceae family and has nitrogen-fixing bacteria in it's root nodules that improve the soil. It is common to add a member of that family into a crop rotation to improve the soil, though clay-rich soils are not great for them. The further west in the state you are, the more likely that it would be a good idea. He was probably checking to see how it would do and if it made a difference for whatever he grew there the next year. If the soil wasn't loamy, it probably wasn't worth pursuing for the whole property.
Maybe. I don't know or remember. Except we NEVER used that field for anything. Ever. We grew hay and had 3-ish head of cattle.
Nope. My guess is someone convinced him to try it, it ended up not being worth it, so he never did it again. He farmed as a hobby.
Tell that to an old-timey tobacco farmer and see what happens... Subsidies for corn ethanol are one of the most egregious examples of crony capitalism. Not only does that stuff do a number on engines, carburetors &/or injector systems (particularly when the fuel sits for extended periods) but it also is grossly inefficient given the massive amount of energy needed to convert it compared to the energy output of the final product. And that's not even talking about the huge price inflation for food products (for humans & livestock) made from corn due to removing it from the food supply or the unhealthiness of high fructose corn syrup.
