Wikipedia's "Agricultural Subsidies"
Cato Institute's take on agricultural subsidies
Your region's use of agricultural subsidies
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The Pros and Cons of Agricultural Subsidies
Pros:
-A subsidized farming industry creates a very predictable and stable farming system. It enables all farmers to have the most recent and efficient equipment availible.
-If farmers weren’t subsidized, consumers would face dramatic price spikes due to things as simple as a bad harvest, and the cost of eating would potentially rise
-the subsidies contribute a large amount of money towards the growing science of ethanol, which reduces carbon emissions.
-American subsidies are good for the impoverished developing world, because staples like milk, wheat, and sugar are more affordable for those people.
Cons:
-Government intervention in any industry goes against the typically American idea of a "free-market"
-America's agricultural subsidies cost tax payers around fourty-four billion dollars each year.
-Unsubsidized agricultural companies can't keep up with the ones who are subsidized, and end up going out of business.
-Agriculture is between fifty and eighty percent of developing countries’ economies, while the United States’ agriculture accounts for only 1.5 percent of its economy. If our subsidies are putting these countries’ farmers out of business, then it can potentially harm at least half of their economy.
-Subsides are bad for the environment. When small farms go out of business, and American produce is shipped to that country, more energy is required to get our produce to that place. Also, more energy is required to maintain the produce throughout that journey. Another reason subsides are believed to be bad for the environment is that subsidies encourage construction and development in places that are not good environments for that development.
-A subsidized farming industry creates a very predictable and stable farming system. It enables all farmers to have the most recent and efficient equipment availible.
-If farmers weren’t subsidized, consumers would face dramatic price spikes due to things as simple as a bad harvest, and the cost of eating would potentially rise
-the subsidies contribute a large amount of money towards the growing science of ethanol, which reduces carbon emissions.
-American subsidies are good for the impoverished developing world, because staples like milk, wheat, and sugar are more affordable for those people.
Cons:
-Government intervention in any industry goes against the typically American idea of a "free-market"
-America's agricultural subsidies cost tax payers around fourty-four billion dollars each year.
-Unsubsidized agricultural companies can't keep up with the ones who are subsidized, and end up going out of business.
-Agriculture is between fifty and eighty percent of developing countries’ economies, while the United States’ agriculture accounts for only 1.5 percent of its economy. If our subsidies are putting these countries’ farmers out of business, then it can potentially harm at least half of their economy.
-Subsides are bad for the environment. When small farms go out of business, and American produce is shipped to that country, more energy is required to get our produce to that place. Also, more energy is required to maintain the produce throughout that journey. Another reason subsides are believed to be bad for the environment is that subsidies encourage construction and development in places that are not good environments for that development.
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