Why Does the United States Continue to Subsidize American Agriculture?
“It seems inexplicable, doesn’t it?” Mickey Kantor replied to this question. “70% of the world’s agricultural export subsidies are in the U.S. and the European Union. We call them crop supports. Cotton is the most egregious. It has an adverse effect upon developing countries in their ability to compete on the world market. 80% of poor people on the face of the earth live on farms or are connected to rural agriculture.” There would be an “enormous impact,” Kantor said, “if we could get rid of these subsidies; and frankly, state-controlled agricultural unions in Canada and Australia as well. Why? Because it would make it fairer, it would make it possible for them to compete in the world market. More than that has to be done. We have to reduce tariffs as well. We have to open up Europe’s markets.” He gave the example of cotton production in Africa. “This is a big product in Africa. But they suffer from lack of infrastructure, lack of technology, and lack of access to the world market beca
