On Twitter, Chris Auld, an economics professor at the University of Victoria explains why Canadian journalists should stop using the $22 billion figure for US farm subsidies to justify Canada’s unjustifiable supply management regime:
It's been widely reported that the U.S. subsidizes dairy farms $22B per year, or 71% of revenues. Which seems… large. That figure comes from a report paid for by the Dairy Farmers of Canada by a small consulting firm. (https://t.co/2v4xkOZRBU). 1/5 pic.twitter.com/chMnPeRMZx
— Chris Auld (@Chris_Auld) June 12, 2018
If we follow their source to pg 111 of the cited USDA document, we find what they're counting as the $225B of "agricultural subsidies" includes absolutely everything in the USDA's budget! More than half goes to SNAP ("food stamps") and other anti-poverty programs. 2/5 pic.twitter.com/tPhR3Qtb6d
— Chris Auld (@Chris_Auld) June 12, 2018
And much of the remainder, including programs like food safety, the forest service, and research, are not agricultural subsidies, either. See pages 210-211 here: https://t.co/BBmjD41AWZ 3/5
— Chris Auld (@Chris_Auld) June 12, 2018
Some of what's left is subsidies, but the report just takes 10.54% of the total as allocated to dairy since that's the percentage of dairy in U.S. agriculture. What most people would think of as actual "dairy subsidies," direct or indirect payments to dairy farmers, 4/5
— Chris Auld (@Chris_Auld) June 12, 2018
are a trivial fraction of the staggering sums claimed in this report. And if we calculated Canadian "dairy subsidies" in the same silly manner, we'd wind up with similarly vast sums. This figure is rubbish and journalists in particular should stop repeating it. 5/5 pic.twitter.com/Hg0M3vpOuB
— Chris Auld (@Chris_Auld) June 12, 2018
