Farm Bill supports biggest players? We're not surprised

Earning this week's No-Duh News Report award is a San Francisco Chronicle story titled "Crop subsidies found to help largest farms most."

Evidently, despite supposed efforts on the part of Congress to help small farms compete, the Farm Bill is still a bloated piece of legislation that essentially writes giant welfare checks to some of the biggest players in agri-business.

In other words, no news here.

It's still news in our region's case, however, because the Farm Bill is helping destroy the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in its own way.

That's because many growers on the Central Valley's West Side — you know, the folks growing water-intensive crops like cotton in a grassland desert — are getting Farm Bill largesse. They grow subsidized crops with subsidized water from the Delta, but they want government to get off their backs.

Ironic, but we're not surprised.