From the Latin for "support", they're government grants given to industry; billions have gone to U.S. farmers
.... and 
other Latin American nations were enabled to purchase farms or given as grants 
to... [DOC] [TLE] Coffee: unfair trade - New Internationalist [PAR] Mar 10, 2000 ... How much of that price went to the growers, the people who planted the coffee, ... 
Coffee is a multi-million dollar industry, but the profits don't go to the ...