So the government is paying you more to let land sit dormant as a nonfarmer than you ' re paying to lease it . Great . No . actually the CRP payments on the land that I leased stopped in 1997 and the WRP was only a one time payment . Never once did I ever see a penny of that money . I don ' t give a shit about your edge case . How do you not get that already ? CRP and WRP have absolutely nothing to do with this . Farmers and nonfarmers alike are still getting paid subsidies to grow nothing . When were they started ? Oh yeah right after the depression when Americans couldn ' t afford the price of food , and they have been redone after every recession since including the 80 ' s 90 ' s and of course most recently in 2008 . So really , the subsidies aren ' t even for farmers . They are for the poor people who wouldn ' t be able to buy any food if farmers had to sell corn at profitable prices . Or even worse , all the famers growing corn switch to 1 of the 8 most profitable options for farming . Actually , they were started before the depression , and they ' ve continued regardless of the country ' s economic situation for nearly a hundred years . Today , the subsidies exist so idiot farmers don ' t flood the market and put each other out of business . Today the subsidies result in artificially inflated prices for everyone in addition to the tax dollars it already costs to keep farmers solvent . Or even worse , all the famers growing corn switch to 1 of the 8 most profitable options for farming . 1 . Bamboo 1 . Ornamental Flowers 1 . Ginseng 1 . Clovers 1 . Herbs such as thyme or Basil 1 . Trees 1 . Ornamental grasses 1 . mushroomsGood luck feeding our nation with ginseng and mushrooms . Good luck selling any of that with a high margin when everyone else is doing it and apparently no farmers are smart enough to understand supply and demand . I promise you , farmers will make money . If not by selling domestically then we ' ll grow and export cash crops until the prices for food go through the roof , then we will grow our corn profitablyWhen you fight so vehemently for your government protection and government handouts , and present nonsense arguments like every farmer switching to nonfood crops because you think they ' ll always be profitable , it leads one to believe you ' d be out of business in the blink of an eye without your government safety net and handouts .