April 15, 2003
by Evan Silverstein

LOUISVILLE - Farm subsidies actually harm rural Americans and worsen hunger in developing nations, according to a report issued this month by the Bread for the World Institute.

In its 13th annual report on world hunger, Agriculture in the Global Economy, the institute says the current system of agricultural subsidies benefits only a small percentage of farmers, but produces windfall profits for a few big producers and corporations.

"The current system ... depresses prices for poor farmers in developing countries and is not the best way to help struggling farmers in our own country," said David Beckmann, the institute's president. "There's a direct connection between the current system of subsidies and the persistence of world hunger."

The institute, based in Washington, DC, examines issues related to world hunger and development and seeks justice for the poor. It is a partner of the Christian anti-hunger lobbying group, Bread For the World.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) Hunger Program is one of the sponsors of the the report, which includes a statistical analysis illustrating the inefficiency of farm subsidies and recommends steps the U.S. government could take to ease the farm crisis in rural America and support development efforts in poor countries.

It says most subsidies are delivered through mechanisms that distort production and trade while producing little net income for small farmers. It urges the United States and other industrialized nations to promote free trade by eliminating subsidies and tariffs.

"The estimated gains to all countries from the elimination of subsidies and tariffs in developed countries would be $100 billion," it says.

If the U.S. and other countries eliminated subsidies, developing nations "would see their net agricultural trade triple, from $20 billion to $60 billion," it says, and more than $25 billion in additional income would go to farmers and agricultural workers in the developing world.

According to the report, industrialized nations spend $310 billion a year in subsidies to protect farmers - six times as much as they provide in development assistance to poor nations. It says the United States spent more than $95 billion on domestic agricultural subsidies in 2001, but the subsidies did not help smaller U.S. farmers or reduce hunger and poverty in rural America.

The institute found that 47 percent of U.S. farm subsidies go to just 8 percent of farmers, most of them large commercial operators, while about 60 percent of all U.S. farmers receive no subsidies at all.

It said farm communities in the western and southern parts of the nation are experiencing greater increases in "food insecurity" than other parts of the United States, including inner cities.

"Of the 840 million people in the world who are undernourished, nearly three-quarters live in rural farming communities," the report says.

In the past 40 years, the number of farming jobs in this country has dropped from just nearly eight million to about three million, the institute says, and the percentage of the rural work force employed in farming has declined from 14.4 percent to 7.6 percent.

The Rev. Gary Cook, coordinator of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, said the study underscores many of the essential points made in We Are What We Eat, a report approved by last year's General Assembly that describes the problems faced by small farmers and ranchers and challenges the Presbyterian Church (USA) to get involved in issues of food production and consumption.

The new report from the Bread institute is "helpful because it talks about the policies which would support small farmers both in this country and overseas," Cook said. "In all of our work, we are cognizant of the importance of healthy small farms in combating hunger and poverty."

For more than 30 years, the Hunger Program has given Presbyterians a way to get involved in the fight against global hunger.

Agriculture in the Global Economy urges the U.S. government to:

. Gradually eliminate domestic subsidies and restrictions on agricultural imports from developing countries;

. Invest in rural communities by supporting economic development, job training, business promotion, infrastructure development and aid to low-income people;

. Work with other industrialized countries to gradually eliminate protectionism in agriculture.

The institute's report is available in its entirety at the Bread for the World Web site, www.bread.org. It also can be obtained through the Presbyterian Distribution Service; visit www.pcusa.org/marketplace, or call (toll-free) (800) 524-2612.

PCUSA News Service