It was 1985, and the government of New Zealand had made a momentous decision -- to abolish farm subsidies in a country where farming had been king ever since Britain colonized the islands in 1840. Twenty years later, as the World Trade Organization heads toward an apparent stalemate at its summit in Hong Kong over plans to reduce agriculture subsidies, the message from New Zealand's farmers to their counterparts in the United States and the European Union is: There's life -- in fact a better life -- after subsidies. The evidence is there, its farmers say: Since the government's momentous...