July 28, 2008
Ag Economist Ain't Sorry about Subsidies
The Freakonomics blog has posted a Q&A with agricultural economist Daniel Sumner. Sumner, when asked if there's a good economic reason for farm subsidies:
No.
He was, I promise, more expansive on other questions. Sumner is something of a rouge ag economist, going against the grain of American agriculture today. If his name sounds familiar, it might be because he recently made waves as the advisor to Brazil who argued that U.S. subsidies to American cotton farmers hurt farmers in other countries and violated WTO rules, earning him the ire of some big ag orgs and companies who like the system the way it is. The word "treason" was even thrown about.
And that caused a bit of trouble with Sumner in his role as an academic at UC Davis -- a land-grant school which receives a great deal of funding from said ag interests.
agriculture, farming, land-grant, subsidies, WTO
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