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Article: A new row to hoe: America should seize the chance to rewrite farm policy. (agricultural subsidies) (Editorial)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 11, 1995
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Economist Newspaper Ltd. 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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SAVE only the baby in the cot, the farmer in the dell is the industrial world's most coddled creature. Now there is a chance to do something about it, in the country where change would matter most. The whole range of America's farm subsidy programmes, from grains to peanuts, is up for review this year. This is the moment for radical thinking.
The previous farm bill, passed under President Bush, ratified the existing programmes instead of rethinking them. This time, things may be different. The chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Richard Lugar, talks not merely of reforming farm subsidies but of phasing them out altogether (see page 55). The conservative ...