Don’t tell Canadian farmers, but the United Nations continues to believe agricultural subsidies are too high and should be slashed.
Everywhere, government subsidies to farmers, roads, energy sectors and water systems distort production, disrupt markets and lead to environmental degradation, a report from the United Nations Development Program said last week.
“In theory, subsidies aim to increase the supply of a social good,” said the 1998 Human Development Report.
“Yet in practice everywhere, perverse subsidies … are harmful environmentally and socially.”
At an Ottawa news conference Sept. 9, UNPD assistant administrator Normand Lauzon said the call for lower subsidies is a long-standing demand by the World Bank and other international bodies.
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While he acknowledged that subsidies have been cut in many countries, there is more to be done, said Lauzon.
He did not offer specific proposals and acknowledged that the view of farm aid from the UN towers of Manhattan might not be all that popular in rural areas.
Personal experience
Lauzon was raised on a Quebec farm.
“I don’t think my father would agree with such a strategy, that we shouldn’t have subsidies to agriculture,” he said with a laugh. “But it is true that with fewer subsidies, agriculture becomes more competitive.”
The report said agriculture remains the most heavily subsidized industry in the developed world, receiving benefits worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
However, water subsidies also were singled out as a cause of resource over-use.
“Removing water subsidies would reduce world water use by 20-30 percent, and in parts of Asia by as much as 50 percent, saving money, reducing waste and encouraging conservation of the precious resource.”
However, the report did note with approval that some subsidy spending, including on energy and pesticides, has declined.
