Trans-Atlantic Differences In considering a Trans-Atlantic free trade agreement (FTA), one has to assess the impact of the divergent views on many issues between the two continents -- not just the United States' reliance on science versus the EU's emphasis on social-economic factors, but also on the basic approach of supporting agriculture. While U.S. farmers are enamored of crop insurance and are set to tap into it big time this year, the EU's effort to initiate a farm income stabilization tool (IST) under the proposed Pillar Two of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is being rejected by several member governments. They fear its huge cost (approximately EUR 7 billion/year) would reduce resources available for environmental initiati...