What are farm trade subsidies?

[The Wildcard]

Reading the news today about WTO and it ending farm trade subsidies. Can anybody explain to me what they are and how they are related to both developing and industrialzed countries?

 

[MacBaine]

So what class is this for?

 

[Shockwave]

Sure.
Government gives money to farmers for whatever reasons they deem, or government gives money to foriegn government for whatever argicultural reason they deem.

 

[ajpa123]

Hey, this thread brought a question to mind.
I once read that the French government do a lot of this and help out the majority of the smaller vineyard owners. Is this true? France produces a ton of top-notch wine, I was just curious.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: ajpa123
Hey, this thread brought a question to mind.
I once read that the French government do a lot of this and help out the majority of the smaller vineyard owners. Is this true? France produces a ton of top-notch wine, I was just curious.

I think most governments subsidize farming. Theres really not alot of money in it, and yet its a needed service.

 

[GroundZero]

i only read the thread title, so sue me if i say something you have already said/posted , or linked...



that was fun.
farm subsidies are gaurantees from the govenment (of any contry or group of countries.)
that a farmer will get a set dollar value on his crop or dollars on the acre farmed and so forth.
so if the "bumper crop" comes in for everyone some year and prices plunge then the gov. compensates.

 

[The Wildcard]

Ahh okay. so isn/t that a good thing? why is it being eliminated by the wto?

 

[sygyzy]

Originally posted by: Shockwave

Originally posted by: ajpa123
Hey, this thread brought a question to mind.
I once read that the French government do a lot of this and help out the majority of the smaller vineyard owners. Is this true? France produces a ton of top-notch wine, I was just curious.

I think most governments subsidize farming. Theres really not alot of money in it, and yet its a needed service.

Very true. The problem is that often times the subsidies are way more than is needed to just survive. What I mean is that there is no money in farming yet we need it so much that the government gives them silly amounts of money to do it. There are farmers that were interviewed and they freely admitted they are *rich* due to farming.

The ideal situation is that you give them just enough to make it "fair". That is, say a farmer can only sell $20k of crops a year but the average worker in his town, with x children, and y cost of living should make $50k. In that case, the government should give them $30k. But nope, they give them much much more.

Not saying farm work is an easy job, but imagine doing your job (whatever it may be) and getting paid 10x as much as it's really worth. That's like someone at McDonald's making $80 an hour instead of $8.

Furthermore, to keep getting paid, farmers will produce crops they don't even need. They just keep making it, even without demand. Then they store it in large silos or just let it go to waste.