Dan Quayle Quotes
Al Gore has made no serious attempt to level the playing field for U.S. agriculture exports, which have fallen 16 percent in the last three years. And Al Gore has opposed every serious proposal to provide American farmers with meaningful tax relief.
Quayle, Dan. Campaign Statement. 2000.
Britain, in order to protect the landed gentry and aristocracy who made their money via agriculture, long had the Corn Laws (Corn was the term for wheat.) which was a protectionist system making it virtually to import food grains, rice or potatoes into Britain. However, with the growth of the population and a protected agricultural industry that had no drive to be more productive there was not quite enough food in the kingdom. When there was a potato blight in Ireland, the situation reached critical proportions. Victoria was not generally in favor of protectionism, and given the shortage and high cost of food then, she wanted to allow food imports. Robert Peel presided over a government where the protectionists who represented the large landowners had a very strong block. Pushing for an end to the Corn Laws could have caused the government to collapse. Peel himself did not think the Corn Laws were good policy and created a hardship for most people especially the poor. But he was the leader of his party and the party was split on the Corn Law issue. Victoria, in this private letter, tells him to do what he things is right and not what is politically expedient. Peel tried but at this time could not get a majority to repeal the Corn Laws, and the Irish Potato Famine killed millions. See {630738} . Peel however stuck with the Queen’s and his perception of what was right. The following year he proposed the Importation Act 1846 which repealed the Corn Laws. Many of his own party would not support it, but this time, he went to the two opposition parties and created a slim majority which passed the bill much to the approval of the Queen.
America and several other nations object to the European Community agricultural subsidies in that they are an illegal trade practice under GATT to which all European nations are signatories. However, the US also makes agricultural subsidies but not to the same extent,
Actually, the Agriculture Department was one of Lincoln’s greatest achievements. The subsidies and corporate welfare came much later. The biggest benefits were the land grant collages where agricultural research improved the yields and productivity and the Agricultural Extension provided training and technical assistance to American farmers making the United States the most efficient agricultural producer in the world. The subsidies and corporate welfare had and has nothing to do with the positive initiatives that Lincoln envisioned.
For many nations, it is an important objective to be totally self-sufficient in their food supply—so that they would not have to depend in other nations in what might be a world famine or food supply. For those nations agricultural subsidies are useful if their farmers cannot produce as cheaply and efficiently as other nations do. In the United States, with the most efficient agriculture in the world, subsidies are a waste of public money {633243} and the result of lobbying and special interest pressure and or corruption {633245}.
James Danforth Quayle is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993, a U.S. representative from 1977 to 1981 and a U.S. senator from Indiana from 1981 to 1989.
