At the end of this litany of supposed excuses or rationales for why we should continue to support both economic and environmental subsidies to industrial agriculture, they deliver their coup de grace to silence critics -- cheap food. Don't criticize farmers and ranchers because they are producing America's cheap food.

Cheap food? Agriculture is the most destructive land use in America. A field of corn, hay or alfalfa is one of the most simplified ecosystems around. Not only have these field crops destroyed and replaced native plant and animal communities, but they have greatly simplified bio-diversity. Add in the lands used for grazing by livestock, and as much as 70 percent of America's land is modified or at least ecologically compromised to accommodate agriculture -- to the great detriment of native ecosystems and animals.

Clearing tall-grass prairies for corn and soy, and short-grass and palouse prairies for wheat, has led to the functional extinction of these ecosystems. We need look no further than the Champlain Valley to see agriculture's impact on native ecosystems where the clay plain forests are jeopardized and 97 percent of the oak-pine plain forests are lost because of forest clearance, primarily for farming.

Cheap food? The nation has lost 44 percent of its original endowment of wetlands, and agriculture is responsible for the draining of the majority of all these wetlands. This is certainly the case in Vermont, in which the Department of Natural Resources estimates the state has lost 35 percent of its wetlands. Draining for farming and other agricultural practices is the No. 1 cause of damage to Vermont's wetlands.

Cheap food? Agriculture is the No. 1 cause of nonpoint water pollution, accounting for far more pollution than all the logging, mining, urbanization and other land uses combined. One cow produces the same daily wastes as 50 people. That means Vermont's 190,000 cows produce about the same waste as a city of nearly 10 million people. Yet most of this waste is dumped untreated on the land and waterways. Not surprisingly, farming is the No. 1 cause of pollution in Lake Champlain.

Cheap food? Presently, the agricultural practices of America's farmers and ranchers are responsible for soil erosion rates that the USDA estimates are 17 times replacement values, and 90 percent of all croplands in the United States are losing soil at unsustainable rates. Bare soil is the main source for Vermont's soil erosion, and the majority of all bare soil in the state is associated with farming practices. Farm-caused soil erosion is choking our rivers.

Cheap food? Most of the agricultural production in the United States is sustained by massive and unsustainable use of fossil fuels -- another subsidy. Agriculture uses 17 percent of all the fossil fuels consumed in America. The food we consume can really be considered part oil.

Cheap food? Nearly 90 percent of the pharmaceutical drugs, including antibodies, found in our waterways come from livestock production. Dairy farming in particular uses a tremendous number of these drugs. Their presence threatens native aquatic life and creates drug-resistant life forms that ultimately threaten the effectiveness of all drugs.

The majority of America's farmer produce cheap food -- but it is not inexpensive. We just aren't paying the full cost at the supermarket.

George Wuerthner lives in Richmond.

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