by TChris

An often overlooked casualty of our country's misguided war on drugs is prominently reported in today's New York Times: domestic asparagus farmers. Since the early 1990's, the United States has been subsidizing the asparagus industry in Peru, purportedly to encourage Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus instead of cocaine. The result has been disastrous for American asparagus growers, as companies like Del Monte move their asparagus processing plants from the United States to Peru, where they can buy cheaper asparagus and process it with less expensive workers.

Since 1991, this outsourcing of asparagus production has resulted in a 55 percent decline in Washington farmland devoted to asparagus growing, while asparagus imports from Peru have increased from 4 million pounds to 110 million pounds. The value of the asparagus processing industry in the United States has dropped by about 30 percent.

Can a program that hurts American farmers by subsidizing Peruvian farmers be justified by its reduction of cocaine production?

"The irony is that they didn't plow under the coke to plant asparagus in Peru," said John Bakker, executive director of the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board. "If you look at that industry in Peru and where it's growing, it has nothing to do with coca leaf growers becoming normal farmers. Coca leaf is grown in the highlands. The asparagus is near sea level."