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Free trade should

modities overseas. There is no legitimate

age economic development in rural areas.

need for the government to manage foreign

Through the Alternative Agricultural Research

be encouraged by

demand for products.

and Commercialization fund, RBCS enters into

means of free-

Forest Service: State and Private Forestry. This

cooperative agreements to facilitate the devel-

trade agreements,

program provides pesticide-spraying services

opment and commercialization of new non-

to large private landowners and planning

food industrial and commercial products

not by subsidiz-

assistance to state agencies and private

derived from agricultural and forestry materi-

ing certain

forestry companies. The states and the pri-

als. This program, a hodgepodge of corporate

vate landowners themselves, not federal tax-

welfare spending, even includes obscure line

industries and

payers, should pay for those services.

items such as the National Sheep Industry

penalizing

National Agricultural Statistics Service. This

Improvement Center.

foreign imports.

agency collects and publishes data on agri-

Rural Utilities Service. The Rural Utilities

cultural yields and livestock used in the com

-

Service was established in 1994 to administer

putations of farm program payments. The

programs of the former Rural Electrification

data are also of direct benefit to the farming

Administration and the Rural Development

industry. The NASS states that its goal is to

Administration. RUS provides subsidized

publish data that help to "ensure an orderly

loans to electric and telephone utility

flow of goods and services among agricul-

providers in rural areas. Telecommunications

ture's producing, processing, and marketing

companies are able to raise plenty of support

sectors." The agency admits that its publica-

in the private capital markets. Taxpayers

tions, which provide "evaluations of alterna-

should not have to subsidize them.

tive courses of action for producers [and]

agribusinesses," allow "farmers and ranchers

Department of Commerce

[to] rely on NASS reports in making all sorts

Advanced Technology Program. See "Case

of production and marketing decisions."6 6

Studies" above.

Farmers should be expected to pay for such a

Economic Development Administration. The

service on their own, and private firms would

Economic Development Administration

be willing to provide it if there were demand.

seeks to improve distressed economies by

Market Access Program. The Department of

providing grants and loans to state and local

Agriculture's Market Access Program pro-

governments, nonprofit organizations, and

vides the trade associations of private agri-

private businesses in areas with high and per-

cultural product firms with taxpayer dollars

sistent unemployment. EDA's activities

to help offset their foreign advertising costs.

include technical assistance grants, which

Forty percent of this spending goes to pro-

provide technology transfer assistance to pri-

mote brand-name products overseas.67

vate firms, and development grants, which

fund the construction and improvement of

Rural Community Advancement Program.

infrastructure for the development and

This program provides grants and subsidized

expansion of private industrial parks and

loans for water, waste disposal, and solid waste

ports. EDA also funds the Trade Adjustment

management activities. These subsidies bene-

Assistance program, which doles out grants

fit businesses that help provide and receive

to assist private firms and industries that are

such services. The program also gives out

deemed to have been adversely affected by

roughly $50 million of taxpayer money in the

increased imports.

form of rural business enterprise grants.

International Trade Administration. The

Rural Business-Cooperative Service. The Rural

International Trade Administration's role is

Business-Cooperative Service was established in

to "develop the export potential of U.S.

1994 to administer programs of the former

firms" by conducting export promotion pro-

Rural Development Administration and the

grams, working with firms to develop market

Rural Electrification Administration. RBCS

strategies for overseas markets, and protect-

provides grants and subsidized loans to encour-

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