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hammodi
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why developed countries support agriculture
July 10, 2006 - 12:26 PM
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i don't know much about economics but that day i read a little about the world trade organization and i learned of the conflict between the developed and developing countries about agriculture.
the developed countries support agriculture with i think $500 millions annually which resulted in cheaper prices of agricultural products and the developing countries want this support to stop so they can compete with "reasonable" prices.
so why the developed inssist on supporting agriculture?
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e.sum
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
July 10, 2006 - 03:57 PM
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This is a perfect example of how free trade isn't fair trade.
I'm not terribly knowledgable about economics so I'm probably overgeneralizing a lot but it is my understanding that agriculture industries in developed countries require heavy government subsidies to be able to compete against the cheap produce of developing nations. Without this support, as well as the protection offered by tariffs, industries and the farmers of developed nations would suffer seriously. And yes, this means that in protecting local industries, developing countries become priced out of the market.
For more news about this topic and similar ones:
BBC article
BBC's "Trade Wars" page
Hope this helps!
This post was edited on: 2006-07-10 at 03:59 PM by: esum
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Hayk
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
July 12, 2006 - 04:13 PM
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Let me try to reply to this question as simplistically as i can without loosing the essential idea.
Consider that agricultural tradition in mostm, if not all, of European countries has been developing and flourishing for many many centuries. Generations of Europeans have been living on it governments of countries have been placing the agriculture as the most profitable, for many European couitres, for the economy till the 17th century when the Industrial Revolution, though not spread homogenously around Europe, put the inportance of agriculture in question. New industries arose and automitazation became the key issue of efficient production of materials and services..
Now, also taking into consideration all new indutries, domains and technological advaces which we were left with ever since the beginning of the Industrial Age, the importance of the agriculture was diminishing ever since.
And recently, with WTOs formal introduction and the policy of free trade and lowering tarifs many of countries (previously considered) as no competition to European agriculture such as many African countries, China, etc suddenly were able to export to Europe agricultural products which were cheaper..
Reaction to this in Europe was a naturally defensive one at the beginning and intentionally isolating one afterwards...
For European countries such as Poland and France agriculture is still consituting a great part fo their economic income, but hwtas most important is that in certian agricultural products such as cheese(for France, Switzerland,etc) grapes (for Poland, France, etc) and other products are viewed as symbols, or in other words, traditional national products which cannot and must not be replaced by "some cheap stuff" coming from outside.. Europeans still cherish many of their agricultural products cause of the long past and cause of their "romanticized" value as i tried to describe above!
Hope this wasnt too unclear 
H.
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hammodi
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
July 13, 2006 - 06:22 PM
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thank you esum and mnopq. that was informative.
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Emily Brown
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
July 26, 2006 - 03:59 PM
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Like a few of you, I am not incredibly knowledgable in the technicalities of economics, however I can give you some general ideas as to why agricultural protectionism happens, and why, in some cases it needs to happen.
- many of the most protected foods (dairy, eggs) are perishables, and therefore cannot actually be traded freely and economically around the world, rather within localities, regions and countries.
-farmers in developed countries (and this is coming from a 'slight' bias, but a fair one) need to be subsidized. People in developed countries (definitely Canada) demand super cheap, high quality food . . . which they get at the expense of the farmer who makes just pennies off of their crops, products
- Because the farmer makes just a few pennies, they must sell more and more . . . this leads to the very economical practice of industrial agriculture and monoculture - which is so incredibly bad for the environment. If we were to make trade more accessable for developing countries, this practice would be promoted there, which is something that should not happen!
-finally, in reference to the first point I made, we shouldn't be eating foreign foods anyways . . . the cost of the shipping of foods is so intense - and so incredibly bad for teh environment. We should be eating in season, local products and be supporting that concept around the world
Now I know their are flaws in what I am saying, and it's not exactly proposed in the most eloquent way - but hopefully a bit of a capable mind will grasp what I tried to say.
Please don't confuse me with some red neck either; I volunteer heavily in international developement and I have a lot of opinions on how to help developeing countries prosper, as well as how much we should help them with . . . I just don't want you to confuse me with someone who is heartless. Its just there are reasons for subsities and protectionism. . . .
Hope you understand and enjoyed! I definitely enjoy learning more about it if people know more!
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A. Tsang
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
September 9, 2006 - 05:04 PM
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We'll hv no food to eat if we don't support agriculture
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Rajesh
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
November 13, 2006 - 07:24 AM
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cheetaih wrote:
We'll hv no food to eat if we don't support agriculture
Absolutely correct. . The agriculture is labor based occupation and labor cost in developed countries is very high. In addition, agriculture is based on rural part whereas people are attracting towards city.
If we look back in developing countries, it will be problem after few decades, because most of the young people are not interested in agriculture and looking for the new jobs.
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FaerieGirl
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
November 18, 2006 - 09:28 AM
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I agree with the fact that we need to support agriculture (especially when many of those cheap methods are not eco-friendly), but we do have to accept that, when one country subsidises its agriculture and later sells them in a developing nation that simply cannot subsidise it that way, free trade agreements bring unilateral benefits...
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Emily Brown
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
November 18, 2006 - 09:41 AM
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Food Aid is actually an even bigger problem when it comes to developed country's food going into a developing nation . . . obviously, food aid completely undercuts local farmers, and it only helps our farmers.
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MOHAMMED ALIYU PAIKO
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
November 20, 2006 - 06:55 AM
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Many responses here are very interesting and educative, but left to me the reason we are discussing this has not actually been addressed.
I feel the first question was "why are developing nations against the support (about US500million) that farmers in developed nations enjoy.
The answer is simple. The support that farmers in developed nations enjoy eventually end up as subsidies, to make agricultural products high in quantity (as a result of increased production) and as well very cheap. This being the case, and with WTO which ensures trade liberalization between countries, these cheap agricultural products from developed nations find their ways into local markets in developing nations.
Of course agricultural productions in developing nations are still carried out, to a large extent, with crude cultural practices, poor seeds, low capital investments(low to no subsidies), low average farm holdings per farmer and therefore resulting into poor yields and very costly products. These products usually do not compare with those from the developed nations in terms of quality. Also since the products from developed nations enjoy subsidies, they then come into the developing countries with a competitive prize.
With the dual advantage of prize and quality, tell me how the products in developing countries will do well against their 'foreign' counterparts?
This is the reason why farmers in developing countries are fighting subsidies. This is a serious challenge to WTO and all its talk about trade liberalization, not loosing sight of their good intentions.
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Fabrizzio
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Re: why developed countries support agriculture
February 27, 2007 - 04:59 PM
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developed countries support agriculture so that they can have a hand in controlling it. think of developed countries as a mafia don pulling the strings and one of those strings is agriculture. developing countries have a lot of undeveloped space that can be used for agriculture and ariculture can boost a growing economy tremendously. if the developing countries exploit the fact that they have something a developed country does not have they can turn into a force to be reckoned with. what developed country wants to deal with a mighty mouse economy?..none.
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