bbc.co.uk
U.S. asparagus growers latest victims of drug war

While you're at Drugwar.com be sure to check out Preston's left hand side bar where he posts current news of interest and import. I was glad to be reminded of this story. I saw it somewhere last week but thought it didn't get enough exposure.

The US government started subsidizing asparagus production in Peru with your tax dollars in the early 90s. The prohibitionists sold this program as an alternative development plan for Peruvian coca farmers. It sounds constructive doesn't it?

Of course they forget to mention that asparagus grows at sea level and coca grows in the mountains. The two crops are absolutely unrelated and the program is destroying the US asparagus industry while having no effect on coca cultivation. Numerous U.S. processing plants have closed and hundreds of farmers have folded.

[I]n Washington, about 17,000 acres have been plowed under since 1991, a 55 percent decline in acreage. In Michigan, 300 farmers in his state lost a total of $25 million because of the Peruvian imports.

During the same period, Peruvian asparagus exports to the United States have grown to 110 million pounds from 4 million pounds.

A centuries old tradition of US farming is being destroyed and only multi-national corporations will survive it. Just another example of how our government subverts the free market principles it claims to support.

The asparagus you had for dinner was probably grown in Peru. The cocaine is still coming into the country. Who has benefited here besides Del Monte, who gets a cheap labor force and those who administer and enforce the prohibition?