Reading Room

by Chris Edwards

General Resources

Cato Institute. Cato’s trade policy site provides extensive research on agricultural subsidies and trade barriers. See www.freetrade.org/issues/agriculture.

Congressional Research Service. The CRS issues dozens of briefing papers on farm policies and farm legislation. Many of these are available at http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/searchform.tkl.

Environmental Working Group. The EWG has a searchable database that includes how much each farm business has received in federal subsidies. See www.ewg.org/farm.

Government Accountability Office. The GAO has produced dozens of reports on the operations of USDA programs. See www.gao.gov/docsearch/agency.php.

U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA’s Economic Research Service generates large amounts of information on farm income, production, and trade. See www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FarmIncome/govtpaybyfarmtype.htm.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General. The OIG investigates waste, fraud, and management failings in USDA programs. See www.usda.gov/oig.

Washington Post. The newspaper’s "Harvesting Cash" series did an excellent job describing the contradictions in U.S. farm policies. See www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2006/07/10/LI2006071000403.html.

Agricultural Subsidies

Chris Edwards, "Agricultural Policy," Cato Handbook for Policymakers, 7th ed. (Washington: Cato Institute, 2009), www.cato.org/pubs/handbook.

Chris Edwards and Tad DeHaven, "Farm Subsidies at Record Levels as Congress Considers New Farm Bill," Cato Institute Briefing Paper no. 70, October 18, 2001, www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp70.pdf.

Daniel Griswold, "Grain Drain," Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis no. 25, November 16, 2006, www.freetrade.org/pubs/briefs/tbp-025.pdf.

Russell Lamb, "The New Farm Economy," Regulation 26, no. 4 (Winter 2003-2004), www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv26n4/v26n4-1.pdf.

Jim Monke, "Farm Commodity Policy: Programs and Issues for Congress," Congressional Research Service, September 1, 2006.

David Orden, Robert Paarlberg, and Terry Roe, Policy Reform in American Agriculture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).

David Orden, "Reform’s Stunted Crop," Regulation 26, no. 1 (Spring 2002), www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv25n1/v25n1-3.pdf.

Brian Riedl, "Another Year at the Trough," Heritage Foundation Backgrounder no. 1763, May 24, 2004, www.heritage.org/Research/Budget/upload/63876_1.pdf.

Dairy Policies

Ralph Chite, "Dairy Policy Issues," Congressional Research Service, June 16, 2006.

Sallie James, "Milking the Customers," Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis no. 24, November 9, 2006, www.freetrade.org/pubs/briefs/tbp-024.pdf.

Dan Morgan, Sarah Cohen, and Gilbert Gaul, "Dairy Industry Crushed Innovator Who Bested Price-Control System," Washington Post, December 10, 2006.

Sugar Policies

Government Accountability Office, "Sugar Program: Supporting Sugar Prices Has Increased Users’ Costs While Benefiting Producers," GAO/RCED-00-126, June 2000.

Mark A. Groombridge, "America’s Bittersweet Sugar Policy," Cato Institute Trade Briefing Paper no. 13, December 4, 2001, www.freetrade.org/pubs/briefs/tbp-013.pdf.

Remy Jurenas, "Sugar Policy Issues," Congressional Research Service, September 4, 2001.

Aaron Lukas, "A Sticky State of Affairs: Sugar and the U.S.-Australia Free-Trade Agreement," Cato Institute Free Trade Bulletin no. 8, February 9, 2004, www.freetrade.org/pubs/ftbs/ftb-008.html.

Aaron Schwabach, "How Free Trade Can Save the Everglades," Georgetown International Environmental Law Review 14 (Winter 2001).

U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, "Employment Changes in U.S. Food Manufacturing: The Impact of Sugar Prices," February 2006, www.ita.doc.gov/media/Publications/pdf/sugar06.pdf.

Trade Issues

Daniel Griswold, Stephen Slivinski, and Christopher Preble, "Ripe for Reform," Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis no. 30, September 14, 2005, www.freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-030.pdf.

Daniel Sumner, "Boxed In," Cato Institute Trade Policy Analysis no. 32, December 5, 2005, www.freetrade.org/pubs/pas/tpa-032.pdf.

U.S. International Trade Commission, "The Economic Effects of Significant U.S. Import Restraints: Fourth Update 2004," Investigation no. 332-325, June 2004, www.usitc.gov/publications/abstract_3701.htm.

Food Subsidies

Douglas Besharov, "We’re Feeding the Poor as if They’re Starving," American Enterprise Institute, December 1, 2002, www.aei.org/publications/pubID.31/pub_detail.asp.

Robert Rector, "Reforming Food Stamps to Promote Work and Reduce Poverty and Dependence," Heritage Foundation, June 27, 2001, www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/Test062701.cfm.

George Kent, "WIC’s Promotion of Infant Formula in the United States," International Breastfeeding Journal, April 20, 2006, www.internationalbreastfeedingjournal.com/content/1/1/8.

Forest Service

Robert Nelson, A Burning Issue: A Case for Abolishing the U.S. Forest Service (Lanham, ND: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000).

Randal O'Toole, Reforming the Forest Service (Covelo, CA: Island Press, 1988).

Randal O’Toole, "The Perfect Firestorm: Bringing Forest Service Wildfire Costs under Control," Cato Institute Policy Analysis no. 591, April 30, 2007, www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa591.pdf.

Roger Sedjo, "The National Forests: For Whom and For What?" PERC Policy Series no. PS-23, August 2001, www.perc.org/pdf/ps23.pdf.