AGRICULTURE: Raisin Jack

The harvesting of the bumper California raisin grape crop, which just ended, was good news last week for pigs, but bad news for taxpayers. The pigs will get most of the surplus raisins for fodder, and the taxpayers will get a bill for about $5,000,000. This giveaway program, just like the expensive program in potatoes and flaxseed, is the result of Congress' love for price supports.

Under a quota agreement with the Department of Agriculture, a market price of $130 a ton was set on 147,000 tons of raisin grapes. To the...

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