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Farm subsidies are still important, they are what stabilizes our food supply so we don't pay 5x as much for bread when we have a bad year for wheat. Its main pu

Farm subsidies are still important, they are what stabilizes our food supply so we don't pay 5x as much for bread when we have a bad year for wheat. Its main purpose is more like food supply insurance, if you only produce EXACTLY what you need/get paid for, then even say a 5% less yield in a large area than expected, maybe from weather, storm, or other environmental conditions, could result in food shortages and huge price spikes. You always plant extra to keep you from starving, but if it was completely unregulated, nobody would ever want to overproduce what they could sell or it is pure lost profits. If you couldn't sell 5% of grain last year, you plant 5% less this year, but if this year was a bad season for other farmers, now you don't have enough to meet demand and the prices skyrocket, good for you personally but bad for thousands of other people that need to eat. Farming is already not perfectly predictable yield to yield, when you add in even wilder price swings it only crushes farms under further financial risks and leads potential famine.

mrep 8y ago
This! At 5.5% of USA GDP [0], some oversupply to avoid supply shocks causing famine is a totally acceptable cost to me. Hell, look at server supply before AWS came along: everyone bought way more servers to account for peak demand and now we can amortize those demands across thousands of different customers. Another example is utilities in how electric supply is way overbuilt with peak generators that are cheap and inefficient to run only sparingly during heat waves in the summer when everyone's AC is on. [0]: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/ag-and-food-sectors-and-the-economy/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistic...
rapnie 8y ago
> Farm subsidies are still important, they are what stabilizes our food supply so we don't pay 5x as much for bread when we have a bad year for wheat. I am not a farmer, so just giving the example I know about: In Holland farmers get 9ct/kg for potatoes. Then in the supermarket this becomes $1.80! Talking normal year here (last year). No long supply lines or nothing. How is that fair or even reasonable? How can they build the reserves to survive a bad yield? So, yes, they need subsidies.
mulmen 8y ago
I’m not saying we should completely eliminate farm subsidies. Only that the current model focuses way too much on propping up specific crops and types of farming. Corn and wheat subsidies go far beyond what is necessary to stabilize those markets.

mrep 8y ago

This! At 5.5% of USA GDP [0], some oversupply to avoid supply shocks causing famine is a totally acceptable cost to me. Hell, look at server supply before AWS came along: everyone bought way more servers to account for peak demand and now we can amortize those demands across thousands of different customers. Another example is utilities in how electric supply is way overbuilt with peak generators that are cheap and inefficient to run only sparingly during heat waves in the summer when everyone's AC is on. [0]: https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/ag-and-food-sectors-and-the-economy/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistic...

rapnie 8y ago

> Farm subsidies are still important, they are what stabilizes our food supply so we don't pay 5x as much for bread when we have a bad year for wheat. I am not a farmer, so just giving the example I know about: In Holland farmers get 9ct/kg for potatoes. Then in the supermarket this becomes $1.80! Talking normal year here (last year). No long supply lines or nothing. How is that fair or even reasonable? How can they build the reserves to survive a bad yield? So, yes, they need subsidies.

mulmen 8y ago

I’m not saying we should completely eliminate farm subsidies. Only that the current model focuses way too much on propping up specific crops and types of farming. Corn and wheat subsidies go far beyond what is necessary to stabilize those markets.