Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the US crop insurance programs in the context of domestic support disciplines under the World Trade Organization (WTO). Crop insurance has become an integral part of many domestic support programs, not just in developed countries, but in important emerging markets as well. An often-cited impetus for the growth in insurance program is the potential treatment of such programs as exempt from WTO reduction commitments.

A detailed examination of the so-called “green box provisions” of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture is presented with particular emphasis on eligibility criteria for crop yield and revenue insurance programs.

While WTO rules potentially shield green box policies from reduction, few developed countries have notified agricultural insurance policies under Annex 2. Moreover, crop insurance programs have been challenged in recent WTO dispute settlement cases and domestic countervailing duty investigations.

The paper presents a unique perspective on a program which has become the largest single farm program in the USA.

Since 1980, the principal form of crop loss assistance in the United States has been provided through the Federal Crop Insurance Program. The Federal Crop Insurance Act of 1980 was intended to replace disaster programs with a subsidized insurance program that farmers could depend on in the event of crop losses. Crop insurance was seen as preferable to disaster assistance because it was less costly and hence could be provided to more producers, was less likely to encourage moral hazard, and less likely to encourage producers to plant crops on marginal lands. Despite substantial growth in the program, the crop insurance program has failed to replace other disaster programs as the sole form of assistance. Over the past 20 years, producers received an estimated $15 billion in supplemental disaster payments in addition to $22 billion in crop insurance indemnities.

In the year 1900 Koch expressed the view that human and bovine tuberculosis were distinct diseases, that the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis could not produce this disease in the human subject, and that the bacillus of human tuberculosis could not set it up in the bovine species. As is now well known. these conclusions have not received the slightest confirmation from other workers in the same field, and it may be said that the consensus of scientific opinion is now to the effect that the bacilli of human and bovine tuberculosis are identical—at any rate, so far as the effects attributed to them are concerned. The Royal Commission appointed in 1901, and consisting of the late Sir MICHAEL FOSTER, Drs. SIMS WOODHEAD, SIDNEY MARTIN, MACFADYEAN, and BOYCE, have issued a further interim report on their investigations. The first interim report was published in 1904, the conclusions stated in it being to the effect that the human and animal diseases were identical, and that no characteristics by which the one could be distinguished from the other had been discovered. The report now issued shows that these conclusions are confirmed by the results of a very large number of fresh experiments. The main conclusions set forth in the present report are as understated :—

In the second part of this report the action of nitrogen peroxide on flour is discussed at some length in an account of a series of researches that have been carried out by DR. MONIER‐WILLIAMS. His conclusions may be briefly stated as follows. The maximum bleaching effect is obtained when each kilogram of flour is treated with from 30 to 100 cubic centimetres of nitrogen peroxide. The bleaching effect becomes more pronounced after keeping for several days. The amount of nitrous acid or nitrites that are present in bleached flour corresponds to about 30 per cent. of the total nitrogen absorbed, the proportion of nitrites present remaining nearly constant after the lapse of several days in the more slightly bleached samples. After the lapse of a short time it is still possible to extract about 60 per cent. of the nitrogen absorbed by the flour by means of cold water, but after several days the nitrogen that can be extracted by this means decreases. This may perhaps be attributed to the “absorption” of nitrous acid by the glutenin and gliadin. In highly bleached flour (300 cubic centimetres of nitrogen peroxide per kilogram of flour) a considerable increase in the amounts of soluble proteins and soluble carbohydrates takes place. In highly bleached flour, after some time, about 6 or 7 per cent. of the nitrogen introduced as nitrogen by the nitrogen peroxide is absorbed by the oil, which acquires the characteristics of an oxidised oil. No evidence is forthcoming as to the formation of diazo compounds nor the production of free nitrogen. Bleaching was found to exercise an inhibitory action on the salivary digestion of flour.

We have observed in the reports of those engaged in the administration of the Acts several references to the practice of milking so that a portion of the milk is left in the udder of the cow, this portion being removed subsequently and not included in the milk sent out to customers. The inspector for the southern division of the county of Northampton reports that on a sample of milk being found deficient in fat to the extent of 17 per cent., a further sample was taken at the time of milking when a milkman was found to be not properly “stripping” the cows. He was warned. The analyst for the county of Notts writes: “The first strippings obtained before the milk glands have been normally excited by the milking are very low in fat yet are “genuine” milk in the sense that nothing has been added to or taken from it. It is nonsense to talk of genuine milk in the sense that everything that comes from the udder of the cow is to be taken as genuine milk fit for sale.” In a case tried before the Recorder of Middlesbrough, one witness said that among some farmers it was a common practice not to “strip” cows until after the milk was sent away.

The introduction of roller‐milling rendered it possible to utilise any variety of wheat, since the grain in this process is not subjected to severe attrition, and pulverisation of the bran is avoided as far as possible. In roller‐milling the wheat grain is reduced to flour in gradual stages (gradual reduction process), during which the offal is continually removed by sifting and by the use of air currents. In this way a more complete removal of branny and other undesired particles can be effected, and a greater yield of highly refined flour can be obtained than in stone‐milling.

In a recent issue of the Municipal Journal there appeared a short but apparently inspired article on the subject of London Government, in which is foreshadowed another drastic and apparently imminent alteration of the system of local administration at present in operation in the Metropolis.

“All things are in a constant state of change”, said Heraclitus of Ephesus. The waters if a river are for ever changing yet the river endures. Every particle of matter is in continual movement. All death is birth in a new form, all birth the death of the previous form. The seasons come and go. The myth of our own John Barleycorn, buried in the ground, yet resurrected in the Spring, has close parallels with the fertility rites of Greece and the Near East such as those of Hyacinthas, Hylas, Adonis and Dionysus, of Osiris the Egyptian deity, and Mondamin the Red Indian maize‐god. Indeed, the ritual and myth of Attis, born of a virgin, killed and resurrected on the third day, undoubtedly had a strong influence on Christianity.

In view of the vital and essential part which the trade of this country must necessarily play in the winning of the war and in safeguarding the peace, it is comforting to know that at last it is beginning to be realised in official quarters that the only way to resuscitate trade and provide a substantial proportion of exports in payment of indispensable imports is to remove restrictions and barriers and to allow trade its natural freedom as far as possible. The lamentable lack of foresight and the inefficiency shown, immediately following the outbreak of war, in imposing pools and controls in all kinds of trades, has already been responsible for the loss of vast sums of money by the commercial interests of the country, and the time has come when experimental hindrances of this kind must be resisted. A special correspondent of The Times, in an excellent article referring to the pooling system, observes that the disappearance of a trade name from shops and hoardings may not strike the ordinary man as really important. But the manufacturer who produces and advertises branded goods guarantees in effect that consumers are supplied with goods of a recognised quality and at a fixed price. To the maker pooling means the loss of whatever goodwill is vested in his name or trade‐mark, to establish which in public favour may have cost him many years of effort and a large investment. The goodwill of British industry and trade is in large measure the sum of goodwill earned by hundreds of separate commodities. The absorption of branded goods in a common pool confronts business men with a problem which they should examine here and now in preparation for the day when trade reverts to its function of satisfying the needs of people living at peace. The problem is to maintain their goodwill in the interval. Much the same difficulties will have to be met by other firms—and possibly by whole industries—which, though their products are not pooled, have turned over from fulfilling peace‐time demands to direct participation in the national war effort. There are clothing manufacturers whose output is needed for the Services. Some businesses find their occupation gone because their raw material—it may be timber—is not now freely available. The production of electricity and gas is restricted by rationing. As the Government ould not look with favour on campaigns to increase sales of gas or electricity, the industries which supply them cannot very well advertise in the ordinary way. But what, then, is to become of “Mr. Therm,” who has been built up so skilfully and at some considerable cost as a model public servant? Publicity seems to be the answer to this problem of keeping goodwill alive. The managing director of a leading motor manufacturing company has made it known that that is the policy which his firm intend to follow while they are exclusively occupied in building aero engines. They will keep their name before the public by advertising, and they believe all makers of British cars should do the same, whether they are at present turning out private cars or not. Advertising is included among the legitimate and, indeed, essential activities classed as business development work, and is allowed as a trade expense before profits are calculated for taxation. It would be well for firms to think carefully before letting all their normal expenditure on business development lapse in war‐time. Ordinary trade has a vital part to play in the war, if only because it is out of profits alone that the revenues needed for fighting can be found. Though the times are difficult, new opportunities and markets will present themselves. Markets hitherto served by Germany are to‐day open to the British manufacturer, if the requisite arrangements for export can be made. At home, with the life of the people going on, new habits are forming, and with them new requirements. The trader who puts forth his best efforts during war‐time is helping his country, not hampering it. It is for the Government to ease his way by removing needless obstructions to normal trade; it is for business men themselves to face their problems with initiative and energy.

[On November 7 last, at a meeting of the society which we regret to see is still incorrectly styled the “Society of Public Analysts,” a valuable and highly interesting paper, entitled “The Analyst and the Medical Man,” was read by Dr. F. Gowland HOPKINS, who attended the meeting by invitation for this purpose.