govt "amok"? - USDA farm survey

JML755 · Jan 13, 2012

In general I agree that govt has run amok. (Seems the post regarding this topic has just gone "poof"). Too many regulations trying to make us safe and tell us how to live our lives.

I have property that is vacant, zoned agriculture that I have been planting Christmas trees on, hundreds of them every year, with the intent to sell them when I retire. I got a survey the other day from the Dept of Agriculture asking a bunch of questions, saying it was for statistical purpose. I was about to throw it out and the wife says "no, you better fill it out" as "it's required by law".

What do you guys that own farms do with them? Do you fill them out? I wondered what would happen if I gave random answers to the questions or tossed it out? Would I be spending the night in jail?

John Rosenberger · Jan 13, 2012

Throw it away if you feel so inclined.

Hard to prove you ever received anything had it not been sent registered mail, at which point you would have been required to sign.

Whos to say it wasnt lost in the mail?

Dachshund · Jan 13, 2012

I always burn mine.....

rustyplow · Jan 13, 2012

I got letters from the USDA addressed to my dad several years after he died. Said somthing similar " required by law". Through them all out. Been 5 or 6 years since the last one. Haven't been to jail, yet anyway. However, we got a survey from the US censis(sp). Wife filled it out with off the wall goofy responces. After a couple months of unanswered letters and several messages on the recoerder they convinced her to come up with some proper answers. She never went to jail ethier, but she was worried for awhile.

big fred · Jan 13, 2012

I got one for my 5.6 acre home (of which the county has decided I can only use 1.4 acres due to salmon and elk) and looked it over carefully. There are nice little boxes where you can put an "X" to select yes or no. I carefully circled "no" for the first four questions, wrote "not farming" on the front, carefully re-folded it so that the bar code on the last page shows thru the window, and now I'm aging it on the floor of my car for a couple weeks before I send it in.

I expect a visit from the USDA SWAT team for my insubordination...

JMS/.MN · Jan 13, 2012

I"ve ignored them for at least two decades. I noticed that the fine for not filling them out was about double for the Uffda employees who squealed the info. Just like other surveys...I just tell them I don"t do unpaid surveys. Yeah, sometimes they threaten legal action, my response is fu! Never any repercussions.

Ultradog MN · Jan 13, 2012

When I get things like that I just throw it away.
If I get a second one I throw it away and the third one etc, etc.
Yes it is required by law to fill it out and return it. But it isn't like they will show up at 2:00 AM and haul you off into the mist.
One of my best friends is an attorney and she told me when you get the form in a registered letter then you better answer it and send it back in. Untill then it's just more junk mail and apt to get thrown out with the Herbergers, Burpee's and Cabella's catalogs or the Publisher's Clearinghouse stuff. Oops.
The same technique works for Census forms and jury duty too.

Buckeye · Jan 13, 2012

I knew a fellow that always wrote "Deceased - return to sender" on his and sent it back. The government never caught up with him, but the "deceased" part did.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 13, 2012

I'm 67 years old, have never filled one out, and they've never put me in jail. There's not enough jails to hold everybody that don't fill them out.

oleclint · Jan 13, 2012

I got one of those"noisy" state surveys several yrs. after I left that state.
I answered every question with a outrageous answer . Never heard from them again.

Chris(WA) · Jan 13, 2012

They sent me one and I live in the city! Of course I
filled it out and sent it in. Its required by law!

Anonymous-0 · Jan 14, 2012

My attitude has been to fill them out since I take the farm subsidies; providing they aren't too onerous. If you don't take FSA money, and not interested in providing them any information, pitch it.

Farmaller · Jan 14, 2012

So your saying I don't have to fill this out. It makes me mad just thinking about it. It's none of their dmn business as far as I'm concerned. Just another way to stick their nose in my business, and add more taxes, or a fee for selling cattle is what I'm thinking. It's been sitting on my table for a week, and I was going to throw it in trash, and someone told me I would get fined for not returning it.

Cienna · Jan 14, 2012

What/who says that, even with registered mail, that you HAVE to receive and sign for it?? Same for a certified letter---------

JML755 · Jan 14, 2012

I was kinda being facetious about the "in jail" part, but the responses pretty much tell me that (based on this small sampling) most people ignore them. Still makes me mad thinking about how many govt people are employed in DC doing this wasteful stuff.

Hay_Man · Jan 14, 2012

Yep, and the number of federal workers earning $150,000 or more a year has soared tenfold in the past five years and doubled since (you know who) took office, and he plans to give a 1.4% across-the-board pay raise to 2.1 million federal workers.

Your hard earned tax dollars at work for YOU.

GREGinMO · Jan 14, 2012

Unless it came as a registered letter that I signed for, it would go in the trash can.

rrlund · Jan 14, 2012

I fill it out. The markets tend to roll with the results and I make my living raising and selling ag commodities,so it matters to me.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 14, 2012

I was in the Doctors office the other day. Place was full of old farmers, many in bibs or carhartts. Lots of wives there too. Lots of talk about the weather and the terrible government mess and all the free loaders in our society. Then they were called up to give the nurse their medicare card numbers so she could schedule their MRI's, Catscans and colonoscopies.

All agreed it was a darned shame how the leeches were destroying this country. Good bye, see you here next week!

Ultradog MN · Jan 14, 2012

You make an excellent point about all the mooches and freeloaders.
One thing about those old farmers though is they paid a lot of taxes over the years and IMO are entitled to some government benefits.
Now the young mooches and freeloaders are an entirely different story.
You sound like one of the younger type to me.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 14, 2012

Nope, I'm one of the old ones, on medicare myself. But it is obvious to me, if all of us are getting as much healthcare as I am, this system won't or can't last long. A couple MRI's and a colonoscopy will wipe out all I contributed during 6 or 8 years of my work life. If I live 20 more years at this rate I'll spend about 10 times what I contributed. I ask myself if I am really entitled to be such a financial drain on the gov't budget...while I call others freeloaders?

rrlund · Jan 14, 2012

Then ask yourself if those tests are necessary. I mean REALLY necessary. Necessary enough that you would have paid for them yourself even if you were well to do enough to have paid for them.
The more I sit around in the winter,the more I realize the little aches,pains and bumps that we notice. So we think they need to be looked at. Most all of them are things we wouldn't give a thought to if we had a life.

Nate V. IA · Jan 14, 2012

I had been throwing them away, they finally called and I answered a few questions on the phone. She was kinda stumped when I didn't have any tillable acres corn, beans, or hay, but had pasture and 100 ewes. I guess she didn't realize that some farmers buy their corn, beans and hay.

govt "amok"? - USDA farm survey

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