Common sense, from Jimmy Carter.

American producers of cotton received more than $18 billion in subsidies between 1999 and 2005, while market value of the cotton was $23 billion. That's a subsidy of 86 percent!

Add to Jimmah's comments about government subsidy of big business farming, the adverse affect of the death tax on the ability of the farming family to hold onto property. A small cotton farm can easily top $2 million for land, structures, and tools, while running on a rather fixed budget that now has to contend with the loss of leadership and a tax collector knocking on the door.