What a typical way for the New York Times to reduce a complicated issue like farming and trade in Africa to a single phrase: "the free market failed". There is

What a typical way for the New York Times to reduce a complicated issue like farming and trade in Africa to a single phrase: "the free market failed". There is little free about markets in Africa, with or without subsidies for fertilizer in a particular country. We can certainly blame ourselves though, if not the experts advocating open markets and no subsidies: the West's tariffs, restrictions on imported agricultural products, and subsidies for rich farmers are directly related to problems in Africa. Farmers in Africa have a much harder time penetrating our markets because of these. Considering one of the first steps past subsistence farming is selling produce to global markets, these restrictions are a very big hurdle to development. The free market advocates, the "experts" derided in the article, have the most coherent ideas on this topic.