The United States Farm Bill, although one of the least understood bills passed by Congress, has a worldwide impact through its determination of US farm subsidies. A recent Oxfam paper estimates that removing the cotton subsidies alone would allow 2 million West African children an education, demonstrating the scope of the justice issue behind this seemingly arcane bill. Recent news from the US House Agriculture Committee seemed to indicate that the new US Farm Bill will disastrously extend current subsidies. Yet there exists a significant ground swell of anti-subsidy sentiment that, if successfully tapped, could result in fairer trade.

As every American farmer probably knows, the U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of a new farm bill a couple weeks ago -- the “Farm, Nutrition and Bioenergy Act of 2007” (as the House Ag Committee titled it). If most other Americans were not paying attention, my guess is that the rest of the world did take note. And they’ll continue to pay attention as the Senate takes up the bill in September. Canada, Mexico, the EU, Brazil, China – the list continues around the globe – know that U.S. ag policy tremendously affects world grain supply and world food prices. My question is: did the rest of the world agree with House leadership that the new farm bill was “a critical first step for reform” in U.S. commodity subsidies? Or did they see...