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Convincing any country, let alone the USA, to give up national security for policy ideals is going to be tough. Food security as a national interest is an easy
by MonkeyMalarky 4y ago
Convincing any country, let alone the USA, to give up national security for policy ideals is going to be tough. Food security as a national interest is an easy argument for the agricultural lobby to make. Now it's starting with semiconductors.
- PaulHoule 4y agoAgricultural protectionism creates political conflict inside the country that practices it. The Corn Laws were so divisive in the UK because they were good for legacy nobles who owned vast amounts of rural land but bad for city dewellers and the emerging class of factory owners. Note the story of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Sugar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Sugar where particularly ... sugarcane in the United States remains nearly twice as expensive per pound as in other developed countries due to the failure the industry would face without government subsidies even if you can say that the last things Americans need is more cheap sugar. In the case of the US our comparative advantage for producing food is large and we don't improve national security by maximizing our production, we just use more fertilizer and get a bigger dead spot where the Mississippi river enters the ocean.