You wrote Bart: "You seem to think that the market forces should take care
of every thing
and subsidy is always bad. Well, that is a point of view, but don't twist
the fact in trying to defend your point of view."
I sympathize with Bart. The world of farm policy appears to be a
bureaucratic and expensive way of subsidizing all the worst trends in
agriculture. Even in France, the large wheat farmers around Paris still
grab a large portion of subsidies and then dump their surpluses on the world
market. Our beloved Congress just raised payment limitations and is handing
out huge "disaster" payments to the largest operators.
Farm policy appears to be so bad, why don't we just eliminate all government
involvement and let the market go? Wouldn't sustainable farmers win the
competitive battle because they know how to cut costs?
I don't think so. Capitalism seems to have this inherent tendency toward
centralization of power and money. Those who are in winning positions
always bend government to their purposes, but government in a democratic (or
pseudo-democratic) society always has the potential to restrain the powerful
in the interests of public good. European governments have been better at
this than our own government. Witness statistics for education, early
childhood mortality, income distribution, poverty, etc.. . . .
Similarly with farm policy. Since the early 1970s, the US government has
been, with deficiency payments, using farmers to launder subsidies for grain
corporations. Now our government is using the WTO to force the Europeans
into a similar path. But thankfully, the Europeans are resisting. Mad cow
disease, a product of industrialization, and ecoli outbreaks in Belguim,
have raised awareness of the dangers of industrial food. Just like here,
there's a growth of support for local high-quality food. Those farmers who
produce the high quality food wouldn't be there, however, without subsidies.
I hate to acknowledge it, but the Swiss and French Jura, where some of the
best cheese in the world is made, would be depopulated without subsidies.
Just plain fact, Bart. I wish it weren't so.
Hal
Hal Hamilton
Center for Sustainable Systems
433 Chestnut St., Berea KY 40403 USA
Phone: (606) 986-5336; Fax: (606) 986-1299
hhamilton@centerss.org
Hal Hamilton wrote: Please get your logic straight before you take pokes at
one of
>the few groups successfully challenging the macdonaldization of the world's
food.
Bart wrote:
>
>*Now,* I'll stir up the real hornet's nest, so don't anybody think I
>accidentally whacked it, somehow believing it was a pin~ata .... (-:
>
>
>The French farmers you so enthusiastically laud are in essence
>advocating a system of subsidies that would effectively relegate them
>to the status of exhibits in some kind of a social zoo, forever paid to
>produce mountains of butter, cheese, wine, meat and pastry wheat that
>cannot be sold, except to perpetually expanding government storehouses.
>
Cher Bart,
Obviously you do not really know the facts. In the past the system of
subsidies in the European Union was linked to production, and it caused
overproduction of many products. Currently the move is toward payments not
linked to production but to farmed area and environmental performance. The
idea is that these subsidies will provide for functions other than the
production of food and fibres, so for things such as improvement or
maintenance of landscape quality and water quality, employment in rural
zones, maintenance of family farms etc.
You seem to think that the market forces should take care of every thing
and subsidy is always bad. Well, that is a point of view, but don't twist
the fact in trying to defend your point of view.
Cordialement,
Hayo van der Werf
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hayo M.G. van der Werf
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
Unité Sol et Agronomie de Rennes-Quimper
ENSAR - 65, rue de Saint Brieuc
F 35042 Rennes
FRANCE
Téléphone +33 2 99 28 27 09
Fax +33 2 99 28 72 30
Adresse électronique : Hayo.vanderWerf@roazhon.inra.fr
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