Turn Food Subsidies in Fuel Subsidies

After years of deadlock, World Trade Organization (WTO) talks may this year result in a deal that calls for a reduction in rich-country agricultural export subsidies. In the United States, the weight of such a ruling would fall on corn. The U.S. government transfers around $4.5 billion from taxpayers to corn farmers each year. The United States exports between 1.5 and 2.5 billion bushels of corn annually, worth some $3 to $5 billion. After World War II, American farmers fed much of the world. Five decades later, improved global food production means the world doesn