This house believes that states should not subsidise the growing of tobacco
A subsidy is financial assistance from a government. In the case of tobacco the subsidy paid to farmers and agribusinesses to supplement their income, manage the supply, and influence the cost and supply of the commodity. The subsidisation of industry and indeed the subsidisation of agriculture are commonplace throughout the world, however the subsidisation of tobacco growers raises a raft of issues given that smoking is something that most states try and discourage in their populations. Both the EU and the USA are big tobacco subsidisers, under the EU Central Agricultural Policy (CAP) the EU guarantees a certain price for any and all tobacco that farmers can grow. In 2010 the United States paid almost $200 million in subsidies to tobacco farmers1 while in the European Union in 2000 subsidies were worth£592 million 1. Tobacco growing is a global industry; there are 135,000 tobacco farmers in the EU, more than 170,000 in Brazil 2 and 850,000 in India3, and in all these countries many more people are dependent on the industry. Subsidies could also take the form of almost any type of financial assistance to tobacco farmers however.
This motion can be set universally which allows for discussion of third world growing of cash crops or narrowed to only include developed nations or to talk specifically about the EU subsidising tobacco growers.
1. http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_331.pdf
2. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/006/Y4997E/y4997e04.htm
3. http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/006/Y4997E/y4997e03.htm#bm03
Bibliography
Action on Smoking and Health . Tobacco economics. July 2011. (accessed August 17, 2011).
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). ash.org.uk. July 2011. (accessed August 17, 2011).
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). Phasing out European Union Tobacco subsidies, July 2001. (accessed August 19, 2011)
Chang, Ha-Joon. Kicking Away The Ladder. 2002.European Commission: Agriculture and Rural Development. The Common Agricultural Policy Explained.(accessed August 18, 2011).
Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. Issues in the Global Tobacco Economy, Rome, 2003, (accessed August 19, 2011).
International Tobacco Growers Association. About tobacco. (accessed August 17, 2011).
International Tobacco Growers Organisation. Why do people grow tobacco? (accessed August 17, 2011).
Jr, H. Frederick Gale, Linda Foreman, and Thomas Capehart. "Tobacco and the Economy." December 2000. (accessed August 17, 2011).
Walbeek, Corne van. "Impact of Tobacco Taxation on Consumption: The South African Experience", 11th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, 2000, (accessed August 23, 2011)
2011 Farm Subsidy Database. "Tobacco Subsidies in the United States totalled $1.1 billion from 1995-2010."Environmental Working Group, (accessed August 19, 2011)
Have a good for or against point on this topic? Share it with us!
