Cheap Feed Crops Subsidize Industrial Animal Factories

The consequences of low commodity prices are serious: farmers’ bottom lines suffer, while multinational corporations win big. Based on new research from Tufts University on the implicit subsidies to industrial animal factories from below-cost feed, IATP's Dennis Olson writes on how agribusiness firms reap major gains at the expense of U.S. farmers and taxpayers.

Below Cost Feed Crops

The WTO Biotech Ruling vs the Biosafety Protocol

The WTO biotech dispute ruling raises some important questions about the UN's Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. In a short analysis, IATP's Steve Suppan explores the potential impact of the WTO ruling on the precautionary principle and the Cartagena Protocol.

Codex Standards and Consumer Rights

In July 2005, the international Codex Alimentarius Commission abolished the notification procedure by which member governments voluntarily accepted Codex standards as a basis for their domestic food quality and food safety regulations. In a new article for Consumer Policy Review, IATP's Steve Suppan outlines challenges for consumer organizations who believe that Codex standards should have more functions than to serve as possible evidence in potential trade dispute rulings at the World Trade Organization.

Read the article (PDF)

Briefing Report on Agriculture and the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial

When the World Trade Organization meets next month in Hong Kong, agriculture negotiations will take center stage. A new briefing report by IATP outlines the key agriculture issues facing WTO negotiators.

U.S. Food Aid Needs Major Reform

U.S. food aid programs are plagued by inefficiency and are not addressing the long-term causes of hunger and food insecurity in the developing world, according to a new report by IATP.

WTO - Failing the Development Agenda

World Trade Organization members are negotiating new agriculture trade rules based on the Framework Agreement of July 2004. But that Framework Agreement will do little to meet previous objectives to promote development in the world's poorest countries, according to a new IATP report.

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Eye on America: Social Watch 1997-2004

A compendium of IATP articles for Social Watch that examine the impact of U.S. policies designed to reduce poverty.

IATP Report Documents Dumping, Argues U.S. in Violation of Trade Rules: A look at how U.S. agricultural commodities are sold below the cost of production—a practice known as export dumping. And details on how the dumping begins right here at home at the farmgate, where farmers sell their crops for prices up to 40 percent below their cost of production. The first in a series of white papers issued by IATP for Cancún.

Download the full report (PDF)
Q and A about the report's findings

Additional IATP white papers from Cancún:

Paper 2: World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture Basics
Paper 3: WTO Services Agreement: Possible Impacts on Agriculture
Paper 4: WTO Decision Making: A Broken Process
Paper 5: TRIPs Agreement: Who Owns and Controls Knowledge and Resources?
Paper 6: Water Services under the World Trade Organization