Americans for Limited Government Foundation (ALG) is releasing a study explaining how government regulations and tax pressures on the U.S. agriculture industry reduce America’s international competitiveness.
The group examined federal government actions and regulations that harm a farmer’s ability to thrive, to help craft a plan for an agriculture sector based on the free market.
Nathan Mehrens, President of Americans for Limited Government Foundation, tells Breitbart News, “Agriculture is one of the great drivers of the American economy, and is fundamental to our nation’s self-sufficiency.”
Dr. J. Wesley Burnett, an expert in agricultural and resource economics, authored the free-market based study and concluded in order to pave a pathway for a free market based agriculture industry, Congress should lift unfair foreign crop subsidies and domestic crop insurance premiums.
In Burnett’s report, he discusses unfair tax policy and regulatory overreach by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Burnett touts Rep. Kevin Cramer’s (R-ND) Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act as a way to combat the EPA’s overreach.
In response to Burnett’s findings, Cramer told Breitbart News, “The regulatory overreach of this administration is astounding. Pushed by extreme environmentalists, they are trying to regulate every puddle on every farm and ranch, as well as making it harder for producers to feed the world with the continued safe use of pesticides. I will continue to work with my colleagues to roll back these abuses.”
Burnett’s report also details trade and policy reforms – supporting Rep. Ted Yoho’s (R-FL) zero-for-zero legislation. It would essentially lift restrictions and tariffs on the sugar market and trade worldwide.
Yoho told Breitbart News his zero-for-zero policy proposal promotes free market principles, so producers don’t have to compete against foreign governments.
“The global sugar market and its producers would benefit greatly if governments would stop subsidizing their farmers. Those involved in the production of sugar know that they are operating within one of the most – if not the most – volatile global commodity markets,” added Yoho.
Burnett and Americans for Limited Government Foundation’s study demonstrates how the federal government’s support programs have harmed the agriculture industry’s competitiveness and made the sector more dependent on government.
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