American Agriculture Needs a Free-Market System Essay

American Agriculture Needs a Free-Market System The words to the famous old children’s song â€Å"Old MacDonald Had a Farm† are due for a revision. The new lines should read â€Å"Old MacDonald had a farm . . . with a lawyer here, and an accountant there, and everywhere a new federal program and regulation.† Not quite as poetic, but definitely more appropriate. The current state of agribusiness consists of an incredibly complex mix of subsidies, price supports, and bureaucratic regulations that could confound the most knowledgeable business minds. Underlying this tangled web of rules and regulations are political battles that pit normally allied groups against each other, and bring normally adversarial groups into allegiance. One bizarre†¦show more content†¦However, by the late sixties and early seventies the percentage had climbed to 20%, and in 1987 direct payments totaled 30% of net farm income (Rapp, 1988). Now, most economists will tell you that government control of prices simply does not work. Artificially high prices provide an incentive for an efficient producer to undercut the price to grab a larger share of the market. This wasn’t the only problem. Besides trying to control the power of the free market, the government faced another uncontrollable force: the weather. Agriculture, being entirely dependent on the whims of Mother Nature, and therefore an industry where accurate forecasts of production are nearly impossible, is not suited to long-range price-fixing schemes. Thus, the 1950s saw the abandonment of price-supports and the introduction of income supports. Early in the twentieth century, our leaders believed that the vitality of our agri-cultural base was vital to our national interest, and as the most abundant country in the world there was no reason to expect that we would lose that vitality. But the Great Depression changed that perception. Since the depression, it has been the continuing policy of the government, Republican and Democratic administrations alike, to support theShow MoreRelatedWto As An International Institution1561 Words   |  7 Pagesfor developing economies in some reasons. First, as the weaker part in organizations, developing countries benefited from unilateral trade actions of United States and Europe. Second, WTO help developing countries to advance agriculture liberalization. As we know that agriculture is the most important thing for developing economies to raise its economy and reach more gain from trade. Third, the new open sectors in specific sectors like tourism also help developing countries t o create more job opportunitiesRead MoreFree Vs. Fair Trade844 Words   |  4 PagesFree vs. Fair Trade Trade opens up a whole new playing field of economic benefits and international relationships, and greatly impacts the marketplace. 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