The “U.S. Agriculture Fee”

Airplane tickets come with some interesting charges and fees. Just having purchased some tickets, I found truly astounding items on the list of “Taxes, Fees and Charges.” Obviously, this trip is across the Canada/U.S. border with various fees on each side. The picture below lists them:

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Not only do some of the fees listed appear to charge twice for the same thing, like “security” under two headings, such as “September 11 Security Fee” and “Air Travelers Security Charge (ATSC),” and the Canada GST/HST taxes, there is one particular charge that really mystifies me, namely the “U.S. Agriculture Fee”. In dollars and cents it’s almost the same as the “U.S. Passenger Facility Charge,” the “U.S. Immigration User Fee” and others charges, fees or whatever they are. Trying to find out what the “U.S. Agriculture Fee” actually does was not successful either. In fact if you google the term “U.S. Agriculture Fee" + "plane tickets" you only get 6 hits altogether, none of which explains what this charge is for (or against?). Frankly, I’m at a total loss about that. I didn’t know that the U.S. agriculture was in such dire straits. Don’t they get a lot of money from corn-for-ethanol in gasoline and oilseed-for-diesel-fuel subsidies already? Or do I misunderstand the meaning of this fee? I wouldn’t want any corn or oilseed farmers to suffer from me taking a plane ride; however, I cannot fathom the logic behind that fee! Therefore, my simple question is: Can anyone explain the reasoning behind it and, assuming that the farmers actually get the proceeds of that fee, how can I make a voluntary contribution of $6.25 to this “U.S. Agriculture Fee” fund? If you can help me with that, please leave a comment!