Aside from the fact that it would be more efficient to just give people money or food, a significant part of farm subsidy comes in the form of import tariffs and minimum guaranteed prices that force food prices up, not down. Furthermore these barriers have the insidious effect of keeping developing economies from participating in the global economy because their farm goods are untradeable. If you think farmers have it tough here, check out rural Guatemala.

I understand your emotional attachment to farming as a lifestyle. The farm lobby trades on this heavily ("my family has been growing sugar beets for eight generations, we need the subsidies!"). Change happens. The sooner we get the kinds of changes that stop farmers from growing rice growing in California, the better.