Reply #34: Wrong [View All]

[PaulaFarrell]

The majority of agricultural subsidies in the US and EU go to the largest farms, often run by corporations. These subsidies let them buy out the smaller farms who can't compete with the economies of scale. I can't predict the long-term effect on small farmers but I think corporations will be the biggest losers. Which is probably why Bush won't cut subsidies very much - I think a similar think happened with Clinton and the sugar industry. Maybe if corpoations find farming not so profitable without subsidies, they will bail out and the price of agricultural land will drop, making it more affordable to small farmers.