Need level field for all subsidies

To the editor:Please encourage your readers and Congress to not subsidize the ethanol industry. If it's good for the country, let the free-enterprise system do its job. Democracy, freedom and the free-enterprise system will work if you give them a chance.

I have no problem if you want to regulate huge parts of the farm industry, but stop all subsidies. U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson recently mentioned that she wanted a level playing field for farmers, because other countries subsidize their farmers. That's all American taxpayers want: a level playing field. Treat all Americans the same way.

The federal government has let farm subsidies get out of control. Even poor farmers and poor farm managers are doing well with the help of the federal government. Give us a level playing field. Either give us all subsidies, or give no one any subsidies.

The free-enterprise system will work if given a chance. But the federal government has made farming so dependent on subsidies that they would have to be phased out over a four-year period. I don't think they could take cold turkey.

RON UNDERWOOD, Sikeston, Mo.