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The subsidies follow the disproportionate voting power and political influence of the relevant mid-west states, not the inherent marketability of corn. Veggies
by kingkongrevenge 19y ago
The subsidies follow the disproportionate voting power and political influence of the relevant mid-west states, not the inherent marketability of corn.
Veggies and nuts are mostly grown at massive industrial operations in California with desert sunshine and irrigation systems. It's definitely a scalable operation not much different from corn and soy.
Not to nit-pick, but carrots keep really well even at room temperature. That was the whole point of root cellars. Veggies store fine. Lots of "fresh" stuff at the store routinely comes out of 9 months in cold storage, and that's without the complex chemical processing and packaging applied to the junk food. Then there's freezing and pickling.
The prevalence of crap in the US diet comes from a deliberate government plan to pump out more cheap calories. It might have made some sense in a Marshall plan world, but we're still stuck with it. That's the story as I understand it.
- rms 19y ago>The prevalence of crap in the US diet comes from a deliberate government plan to pump out more cheap calories. It was deliberately done by the government? I probably shouldn't be surprised... I always assumed it was the corn farmers pushing for subsidies that did it. Do you have any more information on this?
- kingkongrevenge 19y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz#Career http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz#Career > Butz revolutionized federal agricultural policy and reengineered many New Deal era farm support programs. His mantra to farmers was "get big or get out," and he urged farmers to plant commodity crops like corn "from fencerow to fencerow."
- strey 19y agoI read the implication to be more along the lines of Butz being in the pockets of the agriculture corporations, not as a government method of feeding occupied countries.
- akkartik 19y agomovie recommendation (and accidental pun on parent poster): King Corn (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1112115). Enlightening.
- optimal 19y agoAnother related movie (was on Sundance this past weekend): http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm http://www.we-feed-the-world.at/en/film.htm
- Tichy 19y agoI didn't like that one very much, it seemed rather one-sided. For example, I thought it was bullshit to claim that Brazilian farmers are starving because other countries are buying all the soy beans. Clearly it is a political problem, otherwise Brazil would use the money it gets for the soy beans to buy other food for the farmers.
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