G-20 insists with elimination of farm subsidies

[struggle4progress]

The Group of 20, or G-20, insisted this weekend in Sao Paulo that rich countries reduce farm subsidies and comply with the World Trade Organization.

“We must advance in three pillars, the elimination of agriculture subsidies, reduction of domestic subsidies and market access”, said Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Celso Amorim in Sao Paulo following a G-20 meeting where the group reviewed the agriculture proposals put forward by WTO.

G-20 leaders are India and Brazil, but originally were founded by twenty country members including China, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Venezuela, among others.

G-20 will be sitting for another round of informal trade talks with United States, the European Union and Australia. The agriculture issue has been stalled since the failure of the Cancún WTO ministerial meeting held in Mexico last year, when G-20 was created to reject the farm liberalization proposal advanced by the US and EU.
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http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=3785

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Thanks but no thanks

I actually support agricultural subsidies, at least here in Japan where the vast majority of farms are family-run and there is a good system in place to monitor the chemicals they use. The same cannot be said for production in third world countries.

[struggle4progress]

2. I have the impression that US farm subsidies largely benefit corporations

but eliminating them might wipe out family farming.

Any experts on this subject out there?

[papau]

3. I'm not an expert on this - but I believe I have read details on Farm

susidies that indicate that a huge percentage (near 90%?) go to major farm corporations.

[mulethree]

4. 3.5% of farms recieve 70% of subsidies

http://www.ewg.org:16080/farm/findings.php

But that lumps some 'cooperatives' which are actually multiple farmers.

35% of US farms - 2.4 million - get subsidies. The top 10% of those get 70% of the money. Most of this is based on 1995-2000 data.

[Bandit]

7. Isn't that about the same ratio as Americans of wealth and tax cuts

4% get 90% of the cuts. Trillions go to the wealthiest individuals in the world while the rest of us get trickled on.

[notadmblnd]

12. I think they should be eliminated for large corporate farms

the little guy still needs help.

[denverbill]

5. Why are family farmers sacrosanct?

Nobody gives a damn when manufacturers move jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. Nobody cares when IT jobs are sent to India for the same reason. Why the heck should we care about a few farmers losing their jobs to cheap, foreign competition?

Instead, not only do farmers get import restrictions and quotas, they get hundreds of billions in direct aid every year.

Tell you what. Instead of shipping my job to India, I'll work for the same price as an Indian programmer and the govt can pay my company the difference. Why is some farmer more important than me that he gets protection and I don't?

[HereSince1628]

6. How many people can you feed with a gigabyte?

Why programmers watch their jobs go bye bye while farmers get subsidies (not in any particular order).

Argument 1) Agriculture and commerce in food are strategic necessities. Try going a week without eating...

Argument 2) more than 60% of Americans were farmers in 1900. Today it is something less than 2%. The transition had a emotional and political impact.

Argument 3) programmers, although providing a cornerstone of the modern economy never protected their jobs with the sort of trade licenses (think plumbers and electricians) that gave them political significance.

Argument 4) your corporate owners, like corporate farm owners ARE getting tax relief...what the hell else does your industry want and expect?

<sarcasim off now>

[struggle4progress]

8. A programmers' guild sounds like a good idea to me!

[KAZ]

11. From your mouth....

http://www.programmersguild.org/

Though I never really hear much from them.

[sweetness]

9. Great Idea

Too bad so many "capitalists" are against fair trade globalization and so many "liberals" ( wrong word?? leftists maybe) hate the very concept of globalization.

It is funny how the G20 is made up of the worlds most powerful agricultural producers and consumers while it is those non-represented poorest of the poor in the LDC's of Africa who potentially stand to benefit the most from true fair and free global agricultural trade.

[dArKeR]

10. People wearing masks of Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and George W Bush

MASKED ANGER: People wearing masks of Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac and George W Bush dump cotton and sugar on maps of Africa and Latin America in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Silvia Izquierdo, AP)

http://www.news24.com/News24/HomeLite/ (Cover pic)

[kerrycrat2k4]

13. Keep Government Out Of The Bedroom and off my land (nt)