Farmers on Welfare

Farmers on Welfare
Author: Ann-Christina L. Knudsen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801457653

In 2007 the farm subsidies of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy took over 40 percent of the entire EU budget. How did a sector of diminishing social and economic importance manage to maintain such political prominence? The conventional answer focuses on the negotiations among the member states of the European Community from 1958 onwards. That story holds that the political priority, given to the CAP, as well as its long-term stability, resides in a basic devil's bargain between French agriculture and German industry. In Farmers on Welfare, a landmark new account of the making of the single largest European policy ever, Ann-Christina L. Knudsen suggests that this accepted narrative is rather too neat. In particular, she argues, it neglects how a broad agreement was made in the 1960s that related to national welfare state policies aiming to improve incomes for farmers. Drawing on extensive archival research from a variety of political actors across the Community, she illustrates how and why this supranational farm regime was created in the 1960s, and also provides us with a detailed narrative history of how national and European administrations gradually learned about this kind of cooperation.By tracing how the farm welfare objective was gradually implemented in other common policies, Knudsen offers an alternative account of European integration history.

The Rise of the Agricultural Welfare State

The Rise of the Agricultural Welfare State
Author: Adam D. Sheingate
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2021-05-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1400823935

A long-dominant reading of American politics holds that public policy in the United States is easily captured by special interest groups. Countering this view, Adam Sheingate traces the development of government intervention in agriculture from its nineteenth-century origins to contemporary struggles over farm subsidies. His considered conclusion is that American institutions have not given agricultural interest groups any particular advantages in the policy process, in part because opposing lobbies also enjoy access to policymakers. In fact, the high degree of conflict and pluralism maintained by American institutions made possible substantial retrenchment of the agricultural welfare state during the 1980s and 1990s. In Japan and France--two countries with markedly different institutional characters than the United States--powerful agricultural interests and a historically close relationship between farmers, bureaucrats, and politicians continue to preclude a roll-back of farm subsidies. This well-crafted study not only puts a new spin on agricultural policy, but also makes a strong case for the broader claim that the relatively decentralized American political system is actually less prone to capture and rule by subgovernments than the more centralized political systems found in France and Japan. Sheingate's historical, comparative approach also demonstrates, in a widely useful way, how past institutional developments shape current policies and options.

Compassion, by the Pound

Compassion, by the Pound
Author: F. Bailey Norwood
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2011-04-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199551162

This highly readable book is aimed at anyone with an interest in the food they eat. In conversational tone, and avoiding academic jargon, it provides an honest and objective account of the consequences of food consumption choices and policies, through the lens of economics.

Agricultural Input Subsidies

Agricultural Input Subsidies
Author: Ephraim Chirwa
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199683522

This book takes forward our understanding of agricultural input subsidies in low income countries.

Nutrition and the Welfare of Farm Animals

Nutrition and the Welfare of Farm Animals
Author: Clive J. C. Phillips
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2016-05-12
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319273566

This book explores the importance of good nutrition in ensuring an adequate standard of welfare for farm animals. It is often not realized that farm animals can suffer when they are fed unsuitable diets, which may be because these diets are more economic or the farmer does not know how to rectify poor nutrition. This book reveals how to recognize and deal with feeding problems in farm animals, when the animal’s behaviour is indicating a deficiency, through oral stereotypies for example. Feeding livestock in emergency situations can present special challenges, and the availability of clean and potable water, one of the essential components of life, can also be an unrecognized problem for many farm animals. Feeding farm animals effectively is rarely recognized for the major welfare issue that it is. We may assume that animals in intensive husbandry conditions have adequate feed, yet it is often too concentrated and designed primarily to immediately maximize production from the animals, in the form of growth, milk yield or reproduction. In extensive rangeland conditions adequate feed supply also cannot be assured, potentially leading to undernutrition with serious consequences for the health and even survival of livestock. This book will provide a much-needed review of the relationships between nutrition and the welfare of farm animals.

The Big Handout

The Big Handout
Author: Thomas Kostigen
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2012-05-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1921942576

Just reading the word ‘subsidies’ may cause many people’s eyes to glaze over. We don’t think it affects us directly, so we tune out. But it turns out that this complicated-sounding issue has an enormous impact on all of us. The Big Handout is about bad fiscal, environmental, agricultural, water, energy, health, and foreign policies. And it’s a story about just one thing — subsidies. A subsidy is a grant by the government to a private business that is deemed advantageous to the public. Cotton, wheat, corn, soy, and oil are the most subsidised commodities in the United States. In this eye-opening book, New York Times–bestselling author Thomas Kostigen explores government policies that cost US taxpayers $200 billion per year, or over $1,500 per household. In some cases, they pay more for subsidised goods than they’d pay in a free market — and, in the most shocking abuses of the subsidy system, they pay for goods that aren’t even produced. The Big Handout exposes how artificial pricing hurts US citizens and people worldwide, from our waistlines and pocketbooks to our health. By revealing just how toxic America’s subsidy system has become for everyone — including the way it distorts the prices of goods produced by genuinely free-trade countries such as Australia — The Big Handout is a wake-up call for farmers, consumers, and politicians.

Agricultural Policies for Poverty Reduction

Agricultural Policies for Poverty Reduction
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2012-03-02
Genre:
ISBN: 9264112901

This volume sets out a strategy for raising rural incomes which emphasises the creation of diversified rural economies with opportunities within and outside agriculture.

Handbook of Agricultural Economics

Handbook of Agricultural Economics
Author: Robert E. Evenson
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 847
Release: 2007-06-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0080545270

Volume 3 of this series of the Handbooks in Economics follows on from the previous two volumes by focusing on the fundamental concepts of agricultural economics. The first part of the volume examines the developments in human resources and technology mastery. The second part follows on by considering the processes and impact of invention and innovation in this field. The effects of market forces are examined in the third part, and the volume concludes by analysing the economics of our changing natural resources, including the past effects of climate change.Overall this volume forms a comprehensive and accessible survey of the field of agricultural economics and is recommended reading for anyone with an interest, either academic or professional, in this area.*Part of the renown Handbooks in Economics series*Contributors are leaders of their areas*International in scope and comprehensive in coverage

Welfare for the Rich

Welfare for the Rich
Author: Phil Harvey
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2020-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1642934151

Welfare for the Rich is the first book to describe and analyze the many ways that federal and state governments provide handouts—subsidies, grants, tax credits, loan guarantees, price supports, and many other payouts—to millionaires, billionaires, and the companies they own and run. Many journalists, scholars, and activists have focused on one or more of these dysfunctional programs. A few of the most egregious examples have even become famous. But Welfare for the Rich is the first attempt to paint a comprehensive, easily accessible picture of a system largely designed by the richest Americans—through lobbyists, lawyers, political action committees, special interest groups, and other powerful influencers—with the specific goal of making sure the government keeps wealth and power flowing from the many to the few.