'Why would federal policy favor legal fictional entities over individual family farms?'

"Why would federal policy favor legal fictional entities over individual family farms?"

That's a great question and it was asked–and answered–by Jonathan Coppess, an associate professor of law and policy at the University of Illinois, in a "dismaying" July 17 farmdocDAILY analysis of a key element of the just-passed budget reconciliation bill.

The element, that goes by the "boring and benign" name of "Section 10306," amends the "payment limit provisions" of the 1985 Farm Bill.

Boring and benign it is not.

The working part of 10306–the part "expanding the exemption, or loophole, that applied to joint ventures and general partnerships"– does the heavy lifting. It "is not," however, "about farming crops and land, but rather it is about farming the federal programs and public till."

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