The Des Moines Register reported that Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said farmers need a new source of income, and that 90% of farmers don’t make a majority of their income from farming, and that that is a problem. (See link below.)
It is not the government’s job to find new sources of income for farmers. The fact that a large percentage of Iowa‘s farmers have other full-time jobs is not a problem that needs fixing. With the current state of farming mechanization, working a small farm is not a full-time job. We already subsidize farmers by paying 60% of their crop insurance, regardless of size, for doing nothing special or extra. Paying farmers for “carbon sequestration” sounds a lot like paying them for what they already should be doing. What we should do is make good farming practices a requirement in order to receive crop insurance or other subsidies.
Link to Register article: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2021/02/27/tom-vilsack-us-agriculture-secretary-iowa-farmers-fight-climate-change-find-new-income-joe-biden/6832688002/
Libertarian Perspectives 
I had a friend I never met. We disagreed on this issue.
He wrote me a letter through snail mail years ago wanting me to write a letter to Iowa Farmer Today bashing organic farming. I didn’t. But we became friends through email.
He was an old guy who had flown 360 missions in a Blackbird. Imagine that!
He was a diehard no-tiller. He would go to the state conservation convention and propose no government handouts if the farmer used any tillage. They laughed at him.
My disagreement was no government handouts ever for any purpose. I think he was trying to be incremental.
He was a hawk, I was a peacenik. But somehow he was beginning to see I was right. When you stand by a philosophy of non-intervention of any kind, that is, no use of force, and stick with that principle it becomes obvious and simple. We can get on with our lives.
Jerry stopped sending emails and I googled him. Found an obituary. I had wanted to meet in person someday.
Conversations like we had are way too rare these days.
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Mr. Johnson, my family’s been a farmin’ our spread the same way for over 100 years, and we don’t need no Libertarian (whatever that is) tellin’ us how to do our job. We LIKE our subsidies just the way they are, without you buttin’ in to our business. You think we need better farmin’ practices? Well I’ll tell you what, Mr. Smartie-pants. You come on out to my farm and I’ll get you set up behind my horse and plow, and we’ll just see how efficient YOU are!
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Johnny, I never realized how hard farmin’ can be, and I sure-as-heck don’t wanna do no Horn-in’ on your subsidies. So I’ll just keep my nose out of your bidness. Sorry.
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Hi Johnny,
As long as you are taking your (were they ever really yours?) subsidies you are subject to the rules your benefactors. Otherwise your stolen funds are just that. I know. I take them too. You have to fall in line with the commies if you are to survive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor
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Apology accepted, Mr. Johnson.
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