ABSTRACT
The main reason was that the social arrangements of the welfare state stimulated a rise in wages, which reinforced the labour price advantage of holdings of self-employed farmers. The government reduced its market-price support, but farmers could have their prices topped up by price subsidies from the exchequer. Modern agriculture also brought new threats to human health. From the 1960s, environmentalist groups sprang up across the world of strong countries, criticizing the modernization of agriculture from an 'ecological' viewpoint. While many were concerned about the fate of farmers and the lack of fair trade, others worried about environmental effects of new farming techniques. Pesticides could harm farm workers and consumers. John Maynard Keynes advocated international buffer stocks to stabilize commodity markets and prevent new shocks in the global economy. He proposed that the British government would offer subsidized warehouse facilities to commodity producers in its Empire.
