4 ms·
In the general case, I agree with you. With the specific niche of food, however, I disagree strongly. In the US, supporting independent, community farmers is k
by abscondment 17y ago
In the general case, I agree with you. With the specific niche of food, however, I disagree strongly.
In the US, supporting independent, community farmers is key in battling the negative effects of the government corn subsidy. There are numerous places you can learn about this subsidy's adverse effects on developing countries--I'd suggest Food, Inc. for one. Buying locally grown food is also an environmental boon, since there's much less fuel burned in transportation.
- karzeem 17y agoIndeed. Were it not for the government subsidy of entrenched agribusiness interests, local food might actually be objectively cheap. When you're growing food sustainably, you don't get as much of the kinds of economies of scale that give a $1 billion/year factory major cost advantages over a $1 million/year factory, so smaller farms aren't at a huge disadvantage there. And there's no good reason for transportation or distribution costs to be very high.
- andrewcooke 17y agotrue; the difficulty in buying fresh food in some parts of the states always surprises/worries me (i live in chile; we have loads of fresh food, although in the winter there's less variety of course)