Tales from Corporate Welfare

[tw]

Or Who Buys Incumbent Politicians

Congress is again voting on the four year plan to protect American farmers using government subsidies and tariff. Massive subsidies to cotton, corn, soybean, wheat, and rice are heavily subsidized. 50% of that sugar in your table is paid for by government welfare. And yet sugar is only part of the 7% 'Other' on that Subsidy Payment list. This government is so anti-free trade as to even ban Brazilian ethanol so that inefficient American corn farmers can increase corn production. Guess who pays for all this corporate welfare?

Another example is FL citrus farmers who need government protection. Rather then import more of those 1.8 million illegal immigrants, America could instead import from world leaders in orange juice - Brazil. No. We like illegal immigrants and we like protecting a less productive FL orange industry. You would think so by so much silence when your Senator votes against your interests. Corporate welfare gets extremist liberal and conservative incumbent politicians elected. This report might not be popular in an American newspaper. But the British have less interest in being politically correct. Politically incorrect is also known as being anti-American - or honest.

From the BBC of 21 Sept 2006:

Brazil feels the squeeze in juice war
If pressed, the average shopper would probably mention the US state of Florida as the likely source. But as it happens, the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo overtook its North American rival back in the 1980s to become the biggest producer of orange juice in the world.

Brazil now has 48% of the world orange juice market, pushing US growers into second place with just 37%.

Brazil first got into juice production because severe frosts had dealt a devastating blow to Florida's orange crop. But now companies such as Brazil's Cutrale, which produces one glass in five of all the orange juice drunk in the world, have bought their way into the US market. ...

In 1996, Cutrale acquired two Minute Maid juice processing plants in Florida from Coca-Cola, which wanted to withdraw from that side of the business. ...

"There's a very high tariff barrier there, $450 per tonne, which is excessive and prevents competition," he said.

"That means Brazilian orange juice cannot compete with Florida juice, which will always be cheaper. Brazilian juice is only viable when there's a lack of it over there, as is happening now, because hurricanes caused a big fall in production. So Brazil has begun exporting to the US again."

However, Brazilian exporters have met with stiff resistance from Florida-based processors, who accuse them of selling both frozen concentrate and not-from-concentrate orange juice at unfairly low prices.

The US Commerce Department agrees. Last month, it slapped anti-dumping duties of 24.62% on Cutrale's juice, while other Brazilian firms face penalties of up to 60.29%.

Why do WTO rulings so routinely go against the US? One need only look at the US Steel industry that made same 'dumping' claims to an anti-American president. US Steel industry was not using in 2001 a technology that was innovative even in 1964. By being anti-American - by doing what is so often taught in business schools - the US Steel industry is one of the world's most inefficient producers. A problem that can only be solved by bankruptcy so that top management is fired. Instead Big Steel wins protection from an anti-free trade George Jr administration. Why are world leaders - innovative and therefore American patriotic steel companies in other countries - punished for only being better?

FL apparently has a less efficient citrus industry. An industry extremely dependent on illegal immigrants and that will be suffering from a massive labor shortage created by right wing - we fear all immigrant - policies. Who gets screwed? Have you seen how fast agriculture prices are rising this year? You do?

Brazilian citrus producers had hoped that plans to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas would have resolved their dispute with Florida and given them greater access to US markets.

But with that scheme now dead and the Doha global trade talks suspended, there seems little prospect of dealing with what has become a major bone of contention between the economic giants of North and South America.

Luiz Fernando Catapani says Brazilian farmers are being penalised for their efficiency, in a way that is ultimately to the detriment of the US consumer.

Remember who intentionally killed the Doha Round of GATT because it was about free trade in agriculture. Doha was not about enriching those who purchase government. Remember what you vote for when you cast a vote for Rick Santorum - another who gets rich when he votes with George Jr to stifle free trade. Who also fears illegal immigrants? Who votes to only permit 29,000 legal immigrants for an industry that needs 1.8 million? Who approves of Intelligent Design imposed on the people of Dover PA? Who had no problem stifling agricultural imports and denies he has anything to do with inflation now at 2.8% - and rising. You will pay more even for orange juice, cotton, corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, sugar - corporate welfare.

[Clodfobble]

Hypothetically, if all major sources of food production were imported from other countries, that would be a very dangerous position for the US to be in, correct?

I have to agree with Clodfobble. In theory, anyhow, tariffs are meant to protect a nation's vital industries in case of war. If China cornered the steel market, for example, and we went to war with them, there would be a tad of a problem obtaining steel.

I don't know that oranges are so important to national security, but I do wonder about tw's characterization of Brazilian farmers being more efficient than Florida orange growers.

I traveled rather extensively in Brazil when I was young, and I loved much about its people and the beauty of the country. However, efficiency is not an attribute I would place on Brazil's list of charms.

What Brazil does have is large areas of land that are not subject to frost, far lower land prices than Florida, and an endless supply of labor who would be Brazilian millionaires if they got paid the wage of a migrant worker in the US.

Brazil does have the most amazing tropical fruits, however, including oranges. There are juiceria's where you can get fresh squeezed juice of every variety for only a few centavos. Every morning, we were woken up by the "cashew man" who peddled fresh cashew fruit (the cashew nut is only the tip of the tasty cashew fruit) for about 5 cents American each. Does this mean that American farmers are inefficient because I can't buy a cashew fruit for a nickle in Colorado?

[tw]

Originally Posted by Clodfobble

Hypothetically, if all major sources of food production were imported from other countries, that would be a very dangerous position for the US to be in, correct?

That position can only occur if America becomes so anti-innovative as to make food imports essential. America's agricultural industry is due to American innovations. After WWII, European farmers were brought to America - to even work for six months on American farms under the Marshall Plan - to learn why WWII Americans were such productive farmers. Dutch particularly prospered by learning from these innovative techniques.

Innovation means innovators must keep innovating every year. Otherwise countries with cheaper labor get those customers.

Putting up tariffs and restritions only for national security causes the anti-innovators to run those businesses - farms or factories. Greatest threat to American agriculture is to protect it and therefore stifle risk takers - the source of innovation. Don't tell that to politicians who are purchased by Archer Daniels Midland. Such politiicians know where their daily $50,000+ comes from.