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Article: Farm subsidies insufficient; answer is breaking dependencies.(World View)
- Article from:
- Feedstuffs
- Article date:
- September 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Miller Publishing Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As the late nights at the World Trade Organization headquarters in Switzerland are proving, the logical course is not always the chosen course when countries start talking about how to reform agricultural policy by cutting subsidies and slashing import tariffs.
Thinking governments know that farm subsidies are economically inefficient. Politicians know that farmers in much of the developed world represent a generally insignificant voting block. Yet egged on by the food lobby--that mix of farm groups, commodity organizations, agribusinesses and food companies--these same governments stubbornly insist that their food sector, like some sort of drug addict or welfare ...