Final Slate of Topics
These are the topic wordings options that are reported to the Exec Secretary by the Chair of the Topic Selection Committee. Further instructions about balloting will come from the Exec Secretary.
Resolution 1a:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.
Resolution 1b:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, fisheries and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 1c:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 2a:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.
Resolution 2b:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, fisheries and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 2c:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 1a:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.
Resolution 1b:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, fisheries and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 1c:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, through the elimination of all or nearly all the domestic support, export subsidies and/or market access barriers, for biofuels and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 2a:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, corn, cotton, dairy, fisheries, rice, soybeans, sugar and/or wheat.
Resolution 2b:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, fisheries and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
Resolution 2c:
Resolved: that the United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its agricultural support, at least eliminating nearly all of the domestic subsidies, for biofuels and/or one or more commodities in Title I of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008.
It seems a "market access barrier" could be construed to be the lack of a subsidy... since some crops need subsidies to gain access to the market.
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The phrase "market access barrier" is governed in two ways that would prevent the interpretation that David Glass suggests.
First, it is part of a modifying clause to the initial part of the statement that the affirmative has to have the USFG "substantially reduce its agricultural support". Increasing subsidies would never be reducing agricultural support.
Second, "market access barriers" is a pretty well established term of art that is used by organizations like the WTO in many of their documents. No one would construe the LACK of a subsidy as a market access barrier, just the opposite, in fact.
Not only is "market access barrier" used contextually by relevant authoritative bodies, but the three-part combination of policies found in that resolution -- "domestic support, export subsidies and market access barriers" -- is a grouping of terms that is commonly used together to describe the entire set of policies that add up to "agricultural support".
So while David is right that in isolation those terms could possibly be construed backwards, it would be extremely unlikely, absent a huge skill disparity, for a team to sustain it in the face of the overall context of the resolution an the way the term is used in policy literature.
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When will these wordings be voted on?
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Although at first glance the simple list of commodities seems more limiting, using Title I commodities also provides a limit and predictable body of research on the type of subsidy or domestic support that can be targeted by the Aff, and may end up being more limiting, despite adding a couple crops like oilseeds to the case list. Just a thought.
Thanks to everyone involved in the topic selection process, we appreciate your efforts.
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Is there a working definition of what the topic committee means when they say 'CAFO' in the res?
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