It was during an August 20 CNBC segment in which Suffolk University Assistant Professor Ben Powell talked about the flooding crisis in Pakistan. Yet he didn't take the time to discuss the humanitarian situation or the desperate need for help from stable countries.

Nope. Just pure politics.

"U.S. farm subsidies are not good for the U.S. citizens," Powell said. "It cost taxpayers money…often it hurts third-world countries."

Yet Mr. Powell's argument swings right on the confusing pendulum that U.S. farm policy critics embrace.

On the one hand, as Mr. Powell inferred, our farm policy drives prices too low. Poor countries just can't compete, critics say.

"It's a horrible deal," Michael Grunwald wrote in Time back in 2007. "It hurts third world farmers..."

And then you have the other side: Our farm policy makes prices too high, thus hurting developing countries. Oxfam, a group that's spent heavily advertising against U.S. farm bills, claimed ethanol production increased commodity and food prices, and thus hurt poor countries.

"Perhaps more of a threat than rising food prices is increasing price volatility, as poor people, who spend upwards of 50 percent of their income on food, are able to adapt to shocks," Oxfam wrote in a briefing paper, Bio-fueling Poverty.

So our farm policy drives prices too low, hurting developing countries. Wait, they're too high, hurting developing countries. Too low…er, too high.

The swing of the pendulum would even wear out a litter of cats.

The facts are these: U.S. farm policy helps stabilize U.S. farm production, and everything else follows a domino effect that helps not just us, but the world. Our farm safety net enables us to feed Americans, and send the rest of the food to other countries in need. As evidence, as of August 26, 2010, the Associated Press in Pakistan reported the U.S. had already sent $150 million in relief, including near $50 million worth of food.

As a country, we spend just 10 percent of our income on food and just 2.3 cents per meal on the farmers' safety net. It's a deal that works for everyone involved. Except the farm policy critics.

But back to Pakistan.

While the country is reeling from the recent floods, two of their major crops are wheat and sugar. Fortunately for Pakistan, world sugar prices have risen to historic highs in the past year. And the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says wheat prices this year are the third-highest on record. Good news on both counts for Pakistan.

Of course, those points didn't come up during Mr. Powell's interview. His argument is just an unwarranted attack on America's family farmers, and goes back to the same old, same old: Farm policy drives prices too low.

Or too high. It changes by the year, the month, the week, the day, and maybe even the hour. Problem is, even if the critics choose this side or that side of the pendulum swing, the argument itself doesn't stick.