Minnesota Farmers Union

(September 11, 2009) - The World Trade Organization (WTO) cotton case that was filed by Brazil against the US cotton program in 2002 reached a new milestone on August 31, 2009 when the arbitration panel ruled on the amount of the retaliatory countermeasures Brazil could impose on US exports to Brazil. Not surprisingly, the US and Brazil disagree on the amount of retaliatory measures allowed by the arbitration panel as they have at every step of the way between 2002 and today.

(March 17, 2009 )  - Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack wants to ship a portion of the money promised to farmers in the 2008 farm bill to child nutrition programs. Pitting identified farmers with gross sales over $500,000 against children participating in nutrition programs puts farmers at a definite public relations disadvantage. No one is against feeding children, least of all food producers.

The mere positing of such a "choice" suggests that agricultural policy is quickly approaching a crossroad-a crossroad that agricultural commodity policy has been moving toward for a couple of decades.

Navigation of agricultural policy's crossroad may be as significant for agriculture as the policy decisions to address the current financial crisis is for the economy as a whole.

In the case of policy for program crops, the crossroad decision is: Will agricultural policy toward commercial, program-crop agriculture continue its recent focus on transfer payments, many of which are politically tricky to defend. Or will agricultural policy be reformed to moderate extreme variations in crop prices and free farmers' from reliance on politically uncertain payments.

In some ways, the recent journey toward agriculture's crossroad parallels the happenings that led to the financial crisis.