The Foreign Service Journal, May 2009

F O C U S O N FA S & FCS E MERGING C HALLENGES : F ARM T RADE IN THE A GE OF G LOBALIZATION 32 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 9 or an “aggie diplomat,” nothing is more useful than ground truth. Whenever I am home, I like to go on farm calls with my brother, a large-animal vet- erinarian in rural upstate New York. When my brother’s customers ask about my job, I always like to explain why the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service matters to them. After all, these are not only my brother’s customers — they are also mine. FAS faces the same challenge of proving its relevance. Created in 1930 and re-established in 1953, its mission has grown far beyond its original focus on trade issues and agri- cultural reporting. It picked up responsibility for food aid in 1941, market development in 1953, and capacity-build- ing and agricultural development in 1993. As FAS evolves, it must demonstrate its value both to U.S. farmers and taxpayers. But this effort is complicated by high budget deficits, the economic crisis and emerging chal- lenges frompolitics, globalization and technological change. Political Issues Political challenges to agricultural trade threaten to un- dermine long-term support for further liberalization. While some of these issues affect trade generally, others specifically affect agriculture and food trade. Falling support for free trade. The ongoing eco- nomic crisis has terrified many Americans and increased hostility to globalization. The timing could not be worse— the crisis came with trade already blamed for keeping U.S. wages down and increasing unemployment. As a result, Americans increasingly see trade as a threat instead of an opportunity. According to the Pew Foundation, 78 per- cent of Americans said trade was good for the United States in 2002. Just 53 percent of respondents felt that way when asked last year, a drop of nearly a third. Many agricultural producer groups have also become more skeptical about trade. As agricultural imports rose to a record $79.3 billion in 2008, some farmers and growers felt threatened despite record exports of $115.4 billion. Trade stakeholders were also drawn away by other temp- tations such as increasing payments for crops, biofuels and conservation. Declining agricultural population and political in- fluence. Farming is losing political clout. According to USDA’s Economic Research Service, the number of U.S. farms peaked at 6.8 million in 1935. As a result of mech- F ACING A RANGE OF POLITICAL THREATS TO AGRICULTURAL TRADE , FAS MUST AGAIN PROVE THE VALUE OF ITS WORK . B Y E RIC T RACHTENBERG F Eric Trachtenberg currently directs the Agricultural Trade Office in Beijing. He joined the Foreign Agricultural Serv- ice in 1995 and previously served at the American Insti- tute in Taiwan and in Moscow. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official positions of the U.S. government, the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture or the Foreign Agricultural Service.