R Street Institute

Policy Studies Agriculture

Agricultural Policy for the 21ST Century

by Clark Packard
July 28, 2020
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Key Points

The trade wars have been really problematic for American farmers and ranchers.
At the same time, the broken subsidy regime predates the Trump administration.
For years, we have provided subsidies that flow primarily to wealthy farmers and ranchers, which are costly to taxpayers, damage the environment and inhibit our ability to open more foreign markets for our products.

The current farm safety net is full of misaligned incentives that are costly for taxpayers and lead to overproduction, which damages the environment while hurting our ability to open foreign markets for more American products. By making smart policy choices today that responsibly curb agriculture subsidies, we can begin to rectify our fiscal outlook, improve water quality and the environment more broadly and reach closed, foreign markets.

Press release: Modern Day Agricultural Policy Must Include Meaningful Cuts to Domestic Subsidies

Image credit:  Fotokostic

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