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Letter: Buy food, not walls

(Charlie Neibergall | The Associated Press) In this Nov. 21, 2018, file photo, Justin Roth holds a handful of soybeans at the Brooklyn Elevator in Brooklyn, Iowa. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it must delay the release of key crop reports due to the partial government shutdown. The announcement Friday, Jan. 4, 2019 left investors and farmers without vital information during an already tumultuous time for agricultural markets. The USDA planned to release the reports Jan. 11 but said that even if the shutdown ended immediately, the agency wouldn't have time to release the reports as scheduled.

As Mexico is not going to pay for “the Wall" as originally promised, the president and Congress have become entangled in a battle to find funding.

Here is an idea. Stop subsidizing farmers to grow nothing. Allow them to grow marketable food and open up overseas markets to sell these goods. The government reduces payments for nothing, farmers go back to work, the land is productive, the world eats a little better. Funds become available for other pet projects, like the wall.

Richard Kevin Foard, Washington, Utah

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