Agricultural Subsidies for Non-farm Interests: An Analysis of the US Agro-industrial Complex

The article argues that the US agricultural subsidies are sustained by a coalition of forces larger than is normally asserted by mainstream analysis. Using the concept of agro-industrial complex, the article sustains that subsidies are a state policy intended to keep farms functional. The subsidies push farmers into a technological treadmill, an economic dynamic by which farmers must keep investing in expensive inputs and expanding scale. All this investment and expansion makes farmers highly indebted and places downward pressure on the price of commodities, creating a tendency that, if it were not for the subsidies, would probably lead to bankruptcy. A generalized farm bankruptcy would be a grave setback for many interests: input suppliers, commodity merchants, food suppliers, landowners, banks and the state itself, among others. Thus, agricultural subsidies should be seen through a broader political economy perspective, not one that traces subsidies only to the connections between farm interest groups and key members of Congress.