PH.7 Price Floors. Each year, about 9 billion bushels of corn are harvested in the USA.

The average market price of corn is a little over $2 per bushel, but costs farmers about $3 per bushel. Tax payers make up the difference. Under the 2002 $190 billion, 10-year farm bill, American taxpayers will pay farmers $4 billion a year to grow even more corn, despite the fact that every year the USA is faced with a corn surplus. Growing surplus corn also has unmeasured environmental costs. The production of corn requires more nitrogen fertilizer and pesticides than any other agricultural crop. Runoff from these chemicals seeps down into the groundwater supply, and into rivers and streams. Ag chemicals have been blamed for a 12,000-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Overproduction of corn also increases US reliance on foreign oil.?