Pre-class Assignment questions
for Week 4
Answers due before class on Wednesday, February 5.
A.. The Illogic of Farm Subsidies, and Other Agricultural Truths, NYTimes, Stephen J. Dubner: http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/24/the-illogic-of-farm-subsidies-and-other-agricultural-truths/
A.1 How have government farms subsidies impacted the
United States? The world?
The farms
subsidies can be a big burden for U.S. government. It’s
a large amount of payment but and the agricultural industry hardly benefits
from it.
A. 2 What would be the implications of eliminating
subsidies? Consider both American farmers – of all types – and farmers in
developing countries (e.g., countries in Africa) – who would benefit or be
harmed by ending U.S. farm subsidies?
How?
Subsidies
make the price of American products much cheaper then their competitors such as
countries in Africa. Ending the subsidies could benefit them.
B.1 Are there “crop subsidy”-type provisions in
the CAP? If so, how do they compare to U.S. subsidies?
There is crop subsidy in CAP. Unlike the subsidies in U.S., which goes
to ordinary farmers, it only goes to the wealthy landowners and businessmen.
B.2 Is the CAP viewed in the same light as U.S.
subsidies? Does it have the same type of
economic impact or effects as U.S. subsidies?
The European countries seems benefit from
CAP payments much more than the American agriculture benefit from U.S.
subsidies.
C. “The $956 billion farm bill,
in one graph”. The Washington Post, Wonk
Blog,, Brad Plumer.
Find some
details in the Washington Post article to answer these questions about the new
Farm Bill -- assuming that Congress approves the Farm Bill as described in the
Washington Post article (and the House of Representatives already did approve
it):
C.1 What changes
are being made to government policy for for milk, cheese, and butter prices?
The 70-year-old policy is abandoned and a bill will offer insurance to farmers
to protect themselves from unexpected flow in price of milk and feed.
C.2. What
changes are being made to the Food Stamp program, officially called the Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program?
More
restrictions will be put on and more money will be cut off.
C.3 Aside from
the changes in dairy prices and food stamps, describe at least more “big”
changes in agricultural policy if this Farm Bill passes?
A huge amount of
money is cut from commodity programs and distributed to other farm aiding
programs.
