Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
applied socio-environmental problem solving initiatives. This fund was
an excellent example of how to support alternatives to conventional
agriculture. It was authorized in the farm bill, but its funding was later
diverted to other programs. Public interest groups rejoiced at its inclu-
sion in the farm bill, but were unable to defend it in the appropriations
process. This kind of policy would have substantively supported agroe-
cological initiatives, and still could, if it were properly funded.
8
Since the publication of
Alternative Agriculture
, many scholars have
begun to describe agriculture as multi-functional, meaning that its social
benefits are more than merely commodity output. For all their stated
opposition to ending agricultural subsidies, elected officials in the
European Union have quietly been funding policy makers to craft
alternatives to their agricultural production subsidies. The industrial
countries need agricultural policies that recognize the multiple social
benefits created by farming, such as ecosystem services, known as multi-
functionality. Ultimately, agriculture will have to do more than merely
achieve arbitrary water quality goals: it will have to support resilient
ecosystems. Farming is about more than food, whether modern growers
like that fact or not.
The farm-belt states in the Mississippi River basin receive the lion's
share of federal subsidies and appear to have the most to lose from
restructuring federal subsidies. The hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico
is the indirect but inevitable result of the federal crop subsidy system,
and cannot be substantively addressed without reconfiguring this system.
A farm policy obsessed with ever greater output commodity production
cannot, by definition be sustainable. The agricultural input and process-
ing industries have benefited from crop prices distorted by these
subsidies, and have effectively curried elected officials to keep them in
place. Advocates tried to reform these during the 2002 Farm Bill debate,
but were unsuccessful. President George W. Bush has pledged to address
this crop subsidy system as a bargaining chip for the World Trade
Organization negotiations, but his ability to deliver on this is uncertain.
Some policy makers have discussed the creation of a “green box” in the
next farm bill, a strategy for providing public funds to support for agri-
culture for environmental stewardship, instead of merely production.
This would be a mechanism for bringing US farm policy into compliance
with World Trade Organization guidelines. To be successful, a green box
