Agricultural Subsidies: The Fat of The Land
June 24th, 2007
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In a hard hitting editorial, Washington Post asks lawmakers to stop subsidizing rich farmers in America at the cost of African farmers,
Its commodity supports are too often misdirected: High-income farmers collect increasing shares of the largess, and, by The Post’s calculations, between 2000 and 2006 about $1.3 billion went to Americans who do not farm at all.
These payouts distort domestic markets for crops and cropland to favor large agribusinesses over smaller outfits. They affect international crop prices, undercutting poor nations’ economies and derailing vital world trade talks. Indeed, Brazilian and Indian trade negotiators recently indicated that even Mr. Bush’s proposed cap on subsidy spending would not be enough to get the Doha round of talks back on track. And the system has cost more than $70 billion since 2002 — hardly the model of good government on which the Democrats ran in 2006.[link]
Democrats who talks so much about helping the world poor; will they now please step up and stop this travesty of agricultural subsidies?
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