In 1990 it was estimated that farm subsidies and import barriers cost the 17 major industrialized countries $72 billion per year in lost income. Each agricultural job saved by farm supports costs the equivalent of $13,000 in lost household income in Japan, $20,000 in the European Community and the USA, and almost $100,000 in Canada, at the same time costing the consumer through higher prices - estimated for each Briton at £16 a week in 1990. Another 1990 study estimated two thirds of the European Commission's budget was spent to support its farmers. The International Trade Commission estimated that subsidies raised the US domestic price of sugar by 233%, of cheese by 132%, of milk by 142% and of peanut products by 90% in 1990. In the EC and Japan, equivalent tariffs were even higher for many products, including the raise in Japan's domestic price of rice by 733%.
2. The international market for farm products from developing countries is barred by agricultural subsidy policies of industrialized countries. This leads the farmers in developing countries to grow poppies, coca leaves or marijuana.
3. Subsidies and price controls aid the poor at the cost of distorting market mechanisms, which leads to inefficiency and illegality (example: a black market on which bread is secretly sold above the control price).
4. The farm subsidy is simply the admission of the inefficiency of monoculture.