To: Dale Baker who wrote (12523 ) 2/17/2006 5:53:34 PM From: epicure Read Replies (1) | Respond to Dale, speaking of things that might not be so divisive, I heard a very interesting discussion on NPR today about poverty in the third world. One of the issues discussed was West Africa and peanut farming. One of the panelist suggested that eliminating tariffs in this country would allow small farmers in Gambia and Senegal and other countries to compete in the US market. Apparently, according to the panelists, small farmers in Africa COULD compete, but for protective tariffs. A caller suggested that farming for export increased poverty, but the panelists made it quite clear that export crops helped small farmers, where small farmers had access to the markets (where large landowners had bought up land, then farmers did tend to be poor- but that was because they were exploited by the government and the large landowners, not because export crops themselves were per se oppressive.)
