Fri, 16 Jan 2004

Give Us a Taste of Our Own Poison

Methings Mr. Lessig had best stick to his speciality of copyright and IP law ... or should at least read up on the subject he's addressing before he runs wild with it.

I'm no fan of farm subsidies. He's absolutely correct when he states that the majority of them do nothing but keep prices down and support large corporate farms.

The problem arises when he calls these bits of corporate welfare "our poison". They're not - they're the poison of the entire world.

European farm subsidies make ours looks trivial. Even French wine is government subsidized. Japan bars imports of many agricultural products, notably rice. In fact, so do most Asian countries.

Most nations keep a tight rein on their food supplies: and with good reason. In time of war or crisis, a national agricultural capacity is tantamount to national survival. The nation that cannot feed itself won't exist for long.

Of course, these farm subsidies in other nations hurt our exports - as ours hurt them. The debate over farm supports has been raging in the free trade community for a long, long time.

There is no sane reason to tie agricultural subsidies to Hollywood exports. If we're to negotiate free trade agreements, let these agreements at least address similar issues: you can't eat a movie, and it's not very entertaining watching the corn grow.

Countries that are balking at Hollywood imports are doing so primarily for reasons that have nothing whatsoever to do with free trade, and everything to do with the maintainence of cultural diversity. This may or may not be a good thing: in any event, it it completely irrelevent to any agricultural issue, and should stay that way.

Wired magazine columnist Lawrence Lessig offers some advice to the developing world: Hold Hollywood hostage till the United States kills farm subsidies.

(link) [Wired News]

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