For farmers, the main benefit of being certified is a guaranteed minimum price for their beans.

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Thanks to Newt Gingrich and his band of zealous Republicans, the 1996 farm bill abolished the guaranteed minimum price, increased the quota for imports and, most importantly, scrapped the domestic cartel of producers.

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But Martin Brough of Oxera, an economics consultancy, thinks that more will be needed, most probably a guaranteed minimum carbon price.

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