Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

GDAE (TUFTS University) announces two new publications on the implicit
subsidies to factory farms from U.S. agricultural policies:

Feeding at the Trough:
Industrial Livestock Firms Saved $35 billion from Low Feed Prices 
By Elanor Starmer and Timothy A. Wise
GDAE Policy Brief No. 07-03, December 2007
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB07-03FeedingAtTroughDec07.pdf 

Building on its work on the implicit subsidies from low-cost feed to
industrial hog and broiler chicken operations, this new policy brief
estimates the gains to five livestock sectors - hogs, broilers, eggs, beef
cattle, and dairy - from below-cost feed.  Between 1997 and 2005, factory
farms saved an estimated $3.9 billion per year because they were able to
purchase corn and soybeans - the main components of most feed mixtures - at
prices below what it cost to produce the crops, a reduction amounting to
5%-15% of operating costs, depending on the sector.  Estimated savings to
industrial hog, broiler, egg, dairy, and cattle operations totaled nearly
$35 billion over the nine-year period.

Also new from GDAE's "Feeding the Factory Farm Project:"

Living High on the Hog:
Factory Farms, Federal Policy, and the Structural Transformation of Swine
Production
by Elanor Starmer and Timothy A. Wise
GDAE Working Paper No. 07-04, December 2007
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/wp/07-04LivingHighOnHog.pdf 

Agricultural policy reforms in 1996 stimulated overproduction for many U.S.
row crops, driving prices to levels below farmers' costs of production.
Farm subsidies made up only a portion of the difference, leaving most
family
farmers worse off.  The real beneficiaries of below-cost commodities were
agribusiness firms, the main consumers of such products.  In this new
study,
GDAE researchers estimate the savings to industrial hog operations from
cheap feed, mixed primarily from corn and soybeans priced below production
costs.  From 1997-2005, feed was priced an estimated 26% below cost, giving
firms a 13% savings on operating costs.  As a group, factory hog farms
saved
an estimated $945 million per year, a nine-year savings of $8.5 billion.  

This "implicit subsidy" from low-priced feed gave factory farms a
competitive advantage over diversified hog farmers who grew their own
crops.
Factory farms also gained from the externalized costs of pollution from
their large manure concentrations.  GDAE researchers estimate that forcing
industrial hog farms to internalize the costs of just surface water
contamination could have added up to 11% to their operating costs.  

Researchers conclude that in an economic climate of full-cost feed and with
more stringent environmental regulation, factory hog farms would see their
operating costs rise by between 17.4% and 25.7%. This could virtually
eliminate the apparent cost advantage industrial hog operations have over
mid-sized diversified hog producers.
 

For more on GDAE's "Feeding the Factory Farm Project":
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/BroilerGains.htm

For more on GDAE's Globalization and Sustainable Development Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html