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Article: International Trade: Pushing United States Agriculture Toward a Greener Future?
- Article from:
- Georgetown International Environmental Law Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Georgetown University Law Center Winter 2005. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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I. INTRODUCTION
Farming is an enormous industry in the United States, as evidenced by the approximately U.S. $200 billion worth of agricultural products sold by U.S. farms in 2002.1 Nearly thirty percent of all agricultural production is exported, and those exports have a value of U.S. $60 billion and involve one million U.S. jobs.2 In 1998, United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry that American farmers are about twice as reliant on foreign trade as the U.S. economy as a whole.3
Not only is agriculture a sizable industry that is heavily dependent on trade, but, like most large industries, farming also leaves a ...