Potato farmers in North Dakota.
Agricultural interests across America are itching to sell their products to Cuba, regardless of how nasty the dictatorship is to its own people.
Or how stupid they sound when defending doing business with Havana.
"There's a lot of folks in South Florida who have a different opinion than I do," said Ron Sparks, Alabama's commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. "I hope they see we are trying to make it better for the Cuban people. We're not selling them bullets or tanks or aircraft. We are selling them peanut butter, syrup and shingles."
If that were the motive, why not just give the stuff away?
Of course, it is better to have money flowing out of Cuba, rather than in. But decades of trade between other nations and Cuba has demonstrated that all the commerce in the world will not better the behavior of the dictatorship in Havana. It has not bettered the material lives of Cuba, nor has it set them free.
The 2000 law allowing agricultural sales to Cuba — as long as the Cubans pay in cash, in advance — ripped a huge loophole in the so-called embargo, resulting in the U.S. becoming the No. 1 foreign supplier of food to the island. So maybe now it is time to end the hypocrisy, ease the rules and allow the Cubans to buy on credit.
But there still is value in not allowing the Cubans to have easier access to the American market — especially as long as the dictatorship continues to oppress and repress its people. Until Havana tilts towards democracy, releases political prisoners and allows non-communists newspapers printed on Alabama-produced newsprint to be published on the island, the restrictions, and other elements of the "embargo" serve as a valuable negotiating stick with which the U.S. in the future might be able to affect change on the island.
Thank goodness sound thinking in Congress — that's right, Congress — has again put the brakes on further expansion of farm sales to Cuba.
After all, the Cuban government is just another deadbeat.
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