Cotton-picking subsidies - Corporate welfare for growers (a place to cut budget)

[papau]

We lost the World Trade Organization case brought against us by Brazil 2 years ago that said our cotton subsidies were illegal - but Bush ignores "international law".

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cotton31oct31,0,2979393.story?track=tottext
EDITORIAL
Cotton-picking subsidies
Corporate welfare for growers is wasting taxpayer dollars and hurting the U.S. image abroad.

October 31, 2006

A CENTURY AND a half ago, the U.S. cotton industry fueled a booming trade in African slaves and indirectly helped spark the Civil War. One big difference between then and now is that although American cotton is still afflicting Africa, now the Africans suffer at home rather than here.

Cotton is a staple crop for many West and Central African countries, where a difference of a few pennies in the price of a pound of fiber can mean the difference between deprivation and relative prosperity. And an explosion of U.S. cotton exports over the last decade, fueled by one of the most obscene corporate welfare programs this country has ever seen, has increasingly helped tip the scales toward deprivation over there.

On Wednesday, trade ministers from four African countries whose economies are being savaged by U.S. cotton subsidies came to Washington to discuss the issue with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. They left with little more than vague promises. President Bush, cowed by powerful congressional Republicans from farm states, has done nothing to stop a surge in agricultural subsidies during his administration.

Few U.S. growers would be in the cotton business if not for the roughly $3.5 billion the government shovels their way every year. Much of this money goes to large corporate operations or wealthy families that feel it is their birthright to unfairly rig the global trading game. The payments encourage overproduction and make it almost impossible for African farmers to compete with this nation's subsidized exports. <snip>

[spag68]

1. First of all

don't forget the sugar subsidies. Further if all these corporations, and believe me there are no more small cotton farmers, would be forced to compete maybe that would be a good thing. What's wrong with switching to a crop that could be used for bio fuels? There are plenty of things for them to grow, the whole thing is now and has always been a scam to and for the growers. We as a nation have to start looking ahead. Hey I have an idea, grow pot, use the stalks for fibers, then degrade the rest for fuels. We all know what to do with the buds.

[papau]

2. The water shortage in the west is partly because of cotton. n/t

n/t