The 1996 Freedom to Farm Act ended most subsidies, but maintained the old federal price support system for a few crops, including sugar and peanuts. Farmers growing these crops benefit from "non-recourse loans" (which do not have to be repaid), and from import protections -- the tariff on imported sugar is approximately 140 percent.

Federal price supports ensure that prices received by growers will not fall below a pre-determined level for any substantial period.

On One Hand...

American farmers need the remaining few federal price support programs. Without them, agriculture markets would be flooded by cheap imports, bankrupting American farmers and costing thousands of related jobs. Foreign producers often already keep their wholesale prices threateningly low by employing cheaper labor and supplementing revenues with subsidies and tax breaks from their own governments.

American agricultural interests do not simply gobble up government dollars, giving nothing in return. Eliminating supports for sugar producers, for example, would unjustly attack an industry that employs thousands of workers and helps pay for cleanup efforts in the Florida Everglades. And eliminating price supports for peanut farmers would unfairly target African Americans, who make up a large number of program participants.

On the Other Hand...

Federal price supports, legislated during the Great Depression, are unnecessary in today's economy and should be discontinued. Farm subsidy programs cost consumers billions every year in higher food prices, money that winds up in the hands of a few wealthy producers. Sugar subsidies also support the industry most responsible for serious damage to the Florida Everglades National Park. Likewise, the peanut industry has a poor environmental record, thanks to its heavy dependence on fungicides.

• Federal agriculture subsidies were first enacted during the Great Depression to help struggling farmers and ensure continued domestic food production.

• Over 40 percent of sugar price-support benefits go to 1 percent of sugar producers.

• According to a 1993 General Accounting Office report, the sugar program costs consumers over $1.4 billion a year in higher sugar prices.

• Holders of government-issued peanut quotas are the only producers allowed to sell peanuts at the domestic support price, which is nearly twice the world market price.

• Americans spend over $500 million a year on peanut products, according to the General Accounting Office.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Coalition for Sugar Reform, Consumer Federation of America, U.S. Sugar