Wow, I can hardly believe it’s an election year! I simply can’t see Kerry not trying to make political hay over this in the farm belt:
GENEVA, July 30 - The United States yielded to pressure from developing countries on Friday and agreed to make a 20 percent cut in some of the $19 billion in subsidies it pays to American farmers each year, as members of the World Trade Organization met round the clock here to win approval for a new deal governing world trade.
I’m stunned too.
But for the opposite reason, this Administration has been the most protectionist one in some time (at least twelve years, maybe more than 20?)
Comment by Jason — 20040731 @ 1452
What can I say? As President Kennedy said, “The American farmer is the only business that buys what it buys at retail, sales what it sales at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways”. Farmers can not export their products. They sell it to 5 large export companies that have a government sanctioned monopoly for food export. Subsidies started when the government decided that too many farms were dying. Now the government is going to turn its back on the farmers? Notice the exporters are not going to be hurt. They are the ones setting the price.
GET US OUT OF THE UN!
Comment by Carl Tunich — 20040731 @ 1513
As industry and workers made deals with the devil, farmers made deals through their local and national politicians. Seems those deals are coming home to roost. Maybe farmers could use a free market?
Both sides of the political aisle with introduce eyewash to protect the farmers but their favored monopolies will in fact be protected. Same old story.
Comment by gdgadfly — 20040731 @ 1711
Farm subsidies are distributed not on the bqasis of need, but with regard to two other criteria: (1) the type of crop grown, with 90% of all farm subsidies awarded to farms that produce wheat, corn, cotton, rice, and soybeans, and (2) the amount of crops grown, with farmers who grow more crops receiving higher subsidies. Therefore, large farms and agribusinesses_which, as a result of economies of scale, are also the most profitable farms_are eligible for massive subsidies as long as they grow the crops the government wants them to grow.
From http://www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/BG1520.cfm
It would seem that the crops subsidized are the ones that compete on a world market. It looks like the government is really keeping the price of our exports low. The small farmer has never really benifitted from subsidies.
Yes the small farm would be able to compete in a free market. It hasn’t been free for years.
Comment by Carl Tunich — 20040731 @ 2038
Thank you, Carl, for bringing up the big lie: The politicians keep chanting “save the family farm,” when, in fact, farm subsidies are really nothing more than another form of corporate welfare.
Comment by Kevin L. Connors — 20040801 @ 0008