Seeds of discontent

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U.S. farmers are worried that a new global agreement that would govern the way they raise and sell crops would include too many compromises with other countries, benefiting overseas competitors.

Ministers from 146 countries are set to meet in Cancun, Mexico, starting today to rework World Trade Organization rules in the hope of spurring global economic growth. A new agriculture agreement is the meeting's centerpiece.

Across the country, farmers see opportunities but are worried about foreign competition.

Chesapeake Fields, a Chestertown, Md., farm operation, is managing a new project to plant about 2,000 acres of a unique soybean variety on the Delmarva Peninsula and export the crop to Japan.

The company, troubled this year more by local weather than foreign competition, is opening up a niche in the foreign market with a carefully developed product -- a win in increasingly global agriculture markets.

"I think there is tremendous opportunity with [international] trade," said John Hall, Chesapeake's president.

But, like many U.S. farmers, Mr. Hall is at best ambivalent about plans to liberalize agricultural markets.

"Do we open markets at the expense of the American farmer? Third World countries have become our competitors for commodities, and that's eroded profitability," Mr. Hall said.

The Bush administration is keen to reach an agreement that would reduce costs of selling U.S. products overseas and at least change the way governments financially support farmers by eliminating programs that distort trade.