Today Cato’s Center for Trade Policy Studies released a new study, “Freeing the Farm: A Farm Bill For All Americans”, as part of our efforts to promote serious and permanent reform of farm policy in the United States. We will be holding a forum to discuss the study on April 26 (register here).

For too long, American consumers and taxpayers have been supporting farmers, many of whom run successful agribusinesses (for more information on subsidies and who receives them, see the excellent work of the Environmental Working Group here). Removing price supports, import barriers and subsidies will save taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and will expose farmers to the 21st century economy. To the extent that reforms help to achieve a successful conclusion to the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations, American businesses (including farmers) and consumers will gain further.

How would we propose to achieve all this, given the notorious power of the farm lobby? A one-time, limited buyout of commodity support coupled with legislative changes and contracts.

With any luck, the 2007 Farm Bill will be the last.