Governments provide about $500 billion
worth in farm subsidies every year, according to research by the Worldwatch
Institute.
In 2012, the most recent year with
data, agricultural subsidies totaled an estimated $486 billion in the top 21
food-producing countries in the world, the institute says in a recent news
release.
These countries - Canada and other members of the
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) plus Brazil,
China, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, South Africa, and Ukraine - are responsible
for almost 80 percent of global agricultural value added in the world, writes
Grant Potter in the Worldwatch Institute's latest Vital Signs Online
trend.
Agricultural subsidies are not equally
distributed around the globe. Asia spends more than the rest of the world
combined. China pays farmers $165 billion.
Japan spends $65 billion, Indonesia $28
billion, and South Korea $20 billion.
Canada spends $7 billion, a figure that
includes the benefit of higher prices that supply management returns to dairy
and poultry farmers.
Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy
(CAP) delivers farmers more than $50 billion worth of benefits and costs 44 per
cent of the European Common Market budget for 2011.
If European price supports are
included, the benefits rise to more than $106 billion per year.
The United States spent more than $30
billion; the new farm bill scraps $5 billion in direct payments, but adds $9
billion to crop insurance.
Mexico spends about $7.5 billion.
Of the countries studied by the OECD,
94 percent of subsidies were spent by Asia, Europe, and North America-leaving
only six percent for the rest of the world.
The main goal of world trade
negotiations that began 11 years ago was to narrow the gap between the rich and
poor countries. The negotiations
are stalemated.
Economists say that sharply reducing
these disparities in farm subsidies and trade barriers would be worth about 10
times as much as all of the international aid programs for poor countries.
