Voa Agriculture Report - The Fight Over Farm Subsidies

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is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Two words enough to start a debate: farm subsidies.

Farmers are subsidized by their governments usually receive direct payments loans. Domestic subsidies provide support within a farmer's own . Export subsidies help them sell their products in other , often at a lower price.

Developing nations criticize export in the United States and other wealthy countries. They the result is that their own farmers are often to compete on the world market.

The dispute over is one of the major barriers to a new for the World Trade Organization. Negotiators will meet again month in Geneva to discuss compromise proposals for agricultural industrial goods.

One version written last month calls the United States to lower its subsidies. In return, developing countries like China, India and Brazil would make reductions in taxes on industries.

But in Washington, House of Representatives recently passed a farm bill that continue high-paying subsidies. These go mostly to farmers in Midwest and South who grow corn, wheat, cotton, rice soybeans. The bill would also add money for growers fruits and vegetables.

The bill now goes to Senate. President Bush has threatened to veto it. He subsidies for farmers currently receiving high prices for crops corn and soybeans.

Today's farm subsidies have roots in Great Depression.

In nineteen thirty-three-, Congress passed a law paid farmers not to plant on some of their . The idea was to control crop supplies and support , while protecting the soil.

Since nineteen thirty-three-, legislation known the farm bill has come before Congress about every years for renewal.

After the nineteen sixties, to farmers increased. In nineteen ninety-six-, Congress passed the to Farm Act. This law removed the requirement to areas of land unplanted in order to receive government .

Economist and author James Weaver thinks political pressure on will make big cuts in subsidies unlikely anytime soon. says most farmers with high subsidies like the system way it is. The amount received is based on area. So the wealthiest farmers with the most land receive the most money.

And that's the VOA English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Steve .

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