Kennett, Mo. ? In this as in many years, Mississippi Delta cotton growers curse stingy rain gods and the hungry pests that devour their white gold.

But a new threat looms with the 2005 planting, this one as uncontrollable as the weather and more ominous than a boll weevil invasion: cuts in government subsidies.

Farmers in the Missouri Bootheel and across the country are waiting to see what happens Friday, the date ordered by the World Trade Organization for the U.S. government to end several varieties of farm payments.

The ultimatum from abroad has many farmers thinking hard about globalization and pending changes in the government farm programs that have sustained them since the Depression era.

“You go down to the country crossroads to get a bologna sandwich, and you might get in an argument about international trade,” remarked Charles Earnest of Kennett, a farm owner whose family drained the swampy Bootheel in the early 1900s.

Cotton growers are especially nervous because the WTO singled out a program that pays American companies – more than $250 million last year alone – to buy American-grown cotton.

The Geneva-based WTO, acting on a complaint from Brazil, also declared that billions in U.S. subsidies to promote soybean and corn exports are illegal under international trade rules.

It’s unclear when the subsidy ax might fall. But it is becoming increasingly evident change is in store, and an array of farm subsidies likely will be on the chopping block sooner or later.

Even before the WTO ruling in March, President George W. Bush’s administration sought to cut $5 billion from farm programs during the next decade. Thus far, Congress has forestalled those cuts.

Missouri Farm Bureau President Charles Kruse sits on a White House advisory panel on farm policy. He said he sees a perilous future for farmers.

“The WTO ruling has broader implications than cotton, and that is something every farmer needs to worry about,” he said.