Since 1906, the United States Department of Agriculture has employed more than 60 “tick riders,” federal workers who patrol the Texas-Mexico border on horseback and inspect cattle and livestock herds for signs of Mexican livestock and the resultant infestations of the “fever tick.”
Apparently the fever tick is a really bad thing that we don’t want in our country. We don’t want it so much that taxpayers still pay $4 million a year for the fever tick eradication program on the Texas border. The state of Texas writes: “Overall, the expenditure represents a good bargain; a l990 USDA commissioned cost-benefit study showed that, for every dollar spent on the program, producers save $121.”
However, is that a good deal for taxpayers? If a program like that is so cost-effective for producers, wouldn’t they pony up the bill to have their own fleet of “tick riders” if the government didn’t do it for them? It amazes me that people are against corporations, but they tolerate millions in corporate welfare going to huge industries like that for Texas cattle.
Of course, in the end it turns out that this federal program was just as pointless as almost every other one… Mexican cattle long ago became naturally immune to the fever tick, and it simply doesn’t affect them. The Mexican government spent $0, and now have a better result than we do.
As will happen when the government hands out money, the beef industry wants more manna from the taxpayers: “The Fever Tick Force and the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers Association asked Congress this summer to spend more than $30 million over four years, plus a $2.5 million grant to the USDA Agricultural Research Service to find and develop new chemical agents to combat the ticks.”
Tags: Tick riders, Tick riders Mexican border, tick riders Texas, fever ticks
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untruthful horse
February 20th, 2008
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lucid heritage
February 21st, 2008
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February 21st, 2008