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Gradually, amid the rising global price of food, the networks are turning their attention to continued federal subsidies for farms. Last week ABC's Chris Bury visited a corn farm in Illinois to check out whether agribusiness still needs government support. Now NBC's Tom Costello takes us to a cotton and peanuts family farm in Georgia. President George Bush is threatening to veto its $35-per-acre federal handout unless it is capped for farms that gross less than $500,000 annually. Costello recited the farm lobby's explanation for high food prices: a combination of inflated costs for fuel, seed and fertilizer plus commodity speculation, global demand, ethanol biofuels and the weak US dollar. Still the average farm owning household has seen a 6% pay raise over last year, now making an $89,000 net income.
