I'll let others rant about whether it is wise to cut, or freeze, some spending during a recession...for me, this seems like a good opportunity to highlight waste in government that could be cut without too much damage to jobs or recovery. Here's one: stop subsidizing Peru's asparagus farmers in the name of the "War on Drugs." More info below.
(Caveat: This diary was written hastily with info that's a bit dated. After doing some Googling it's my assumption that the Peruvian subsidies are still in place. If not: never mind (and HOORAY!).
A couple years ago the documentary "ASPARAGUS! Stalking the American Life"was released and was shown on some PBS stations, including those in Michigan.
Here's brief synopsis:Full article here
A key theme is the effect of policies, made at high levels of government, that damaged a domestic industry by flooding markets with cheap, imported product.
"There are two threads in the film," Kelly said. "One is the fun and joy side, the community spirit, the dances and parades and recipes, that come with identifying with the thing that is an economic force in your community.
"The other is the decisions we made that put barriers before American farmers."
That side focuses on a decision made by the U.S. government in 1991 to give trade preferences to Andean Mountain countries that reduce production of illegal drugs in return for gaining access to markets for legal crops. That led to an explosion of asparagus imports from Peru.
"Probably the intentions were good, but the policy doesn't work. Nobody thought it through," Kelly said, quoting grower Tom Oomen, one of the "main characters" in the film. "It is totally ironic. Nobody thought it through."
The New York Times did a piece that further explored the issue and asserted "the United States also spends about $60 million a year in Peru to help farmers grow and develop their industry for asparagus and other crops seen as alternatives to coca." Some other highlights:
To reduce the flow of cocaine into this country by encouraging farmers in Peru to grow food instead of coca, the United States in the early 1990's started to subsidize a year-round Peruvian asparagus industry, and since then American processing plants have closed and hundreds of farmers have gone out of business.
One result is that Americans are eating more asparagus, because it is available fresh at all times. But the growth has been in Peruvian asparagus supported by American taxpayers.
"We've created this booming asparagus industry in Peru, resulting in the demise of a century-old industry in America," said Alan Schreiber, director of the Washington Asparagus Commission. "And I've yet to hear anyone from the government tell me with a straight face that it has reduced the amount of cocaine coming into this country."
Two of the biggest asparagus processing factories in the United States have closed. The Del Monte plant in Toppenish is still packing other vegetables, but it buys and packs its asparagus in Peru. The other factory was in Walla Walla.
Peruvian asparagus is sold without tariffs under terms of the Andean Trade Preference Act, signed in 1991 and renewed in 2002. The United States also spends about $60 million a year in Peru to help farmers grow and develop their industry for asparagus and other crops seen as alternatives to coca.
In Michigan, the value of the industry has fallen by 35 percent since the Andean trade agreement. Michigan and Washington have been hit the hardest because they lead the nation in production of canned or frozen asparagus, a segment that has been in particular decline with the year-round Peruvian crop.
"The irony is that they didn't plow under the coke to plant asparagus in Peru," said John Bakker, executive director of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board. "If you look at that industry in Peru and where it's growing, it has nothing to do with coca leaf growers becoming normal farmers. Coca leaf is grown in the highlands. The asparagus is near sea level."
Yet United States auditors, in a 2001 report to Congress, said the Foreign Agricultural Service "does not believe that Peruvian asparagus production provides an alternative economic opportunity for coca producers and workers — the stated purpose of the act."
The 2001 report by the General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of Congress, found that the value of the asparagus processing industry in the United States had fallen by nearly 30 percent, which it attributed to Peruvian imports. The industry was valued at $217 million in 2000.
Mr. Bakker of the Michigan asparagus board said about 300 farmers in his state had lost a total of about $25 million because of the cheaper Peruvian imports. The government has bought some Michigan asparagus, but farmers there and in Washington say money that is supposed to be available to industries hurt by free trade pacts is difficult to get, because of a formula that takes prices rather than job losses into account.
"Our industry will disappear before we qualify for any trade assistance money," Mr. Bakker said. "And it's not like Michigan farmers are against the war on drugs. There are certainly social benefits from trying to curb cocaine production, but why should one industry take it on the chin for it?"
I'm not sure if the money spent on this program would be considered "domestic spending" or not, but it is certainly spending that effects jobs and growth in the United States, so it has a domestic effect. And, I believe, the "war on drugs" is coordinated by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a component of the Executive Office of the President, so the President should be able to direct policy and spending decisions.
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This issue is just an example - I'm sure there are many others that people could highlight, and they should. And if there is talk of cutting entitlement programs, then there must be talk about cutting corn and soybeans subsidies as well - government welfare that both Tea-bagger Queen Michele Bachmann and Chuck "HCR is Socialism" Grassley enjoy:
Michele Bachmann has become well known for her anti-government tea-bagger antics, protesting health care reform and every other government "handout" as socialism. What her followers probably don’t know is that Rep. Bachmann is, to use that anti-government slur, something of a welfare queen. That’s right, the anti-government insurrectionist has taken more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts thanks to corrupt farming subsidies she has been collecting for at least a decade.
Full article here
Rather than simply complain about "The Freeze" maybe we need to start rooting out and highlighting the waste that can be eliminated...with a senate that now will be surely deadlocked when it comes to further economic stimulus, the money for job creation must come from somewhere. Let's cut some pork.