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States have taken measures to ensure food security going back almost 10,000 years in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese granaries. If people really want to red
by simple-thoughts 3y ago
States have taken measures to ensure food security going back almost 10,000 years in Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Chinese granaries. If people really want to reduce the degree of intervention in markets by the state, better targets would be entitlements which are both new and have proven negative effects.
While it might be true that the Farm Bill could be a net negative, the risk of social collapse due to lack of food security combined with the very long history and success of states implementing market interventions to maintain good security makes me think this should be one of the last areas to target for reform.
Also the articles comparison between burgers and salad is ridiculous. One of them is highly nutritious with a lot of calories and can be easily frozen for transport. The other is mostly water and fetishistic.
- wombat-man 3y agoYeah. Food wins wars. The system is setup to motivate generating a huge amount of calories quickly and cheaply.
- cpursley 3y agoObese people with poor health aren’t winning any wars, which require a lot of running.
- m463 3y agoMany couch potatoes have been training all their lives to be exceptional drone or mech pilots.
- oatmeal1 3y agoIt's hard to fight a war if half your country is too fat to serve in the military.
- wombat-man 3y agoIt's hard to fight a war if you depend on imports to feed your country.
- Der_Einzige 3y agoThat’s what ozempic is for!
- standardUser 3y agoThat's a false choice. If you think food security and a healthier food economy are incompatible, you lack imagination, or have never visited Europe.
- DarkNova6 3y agoIt's just big business. And the companies reaping the most benefits from it will fight a bitter war to never let go of subsidies. Worth a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DISGLjg8Kw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DISGLjg8Kw
- cpursley 3y agoThe problem is, the Farm Bill gives us cheap Little Debbies and other garbage. Not only does it subsidize its purchase (food stamps), it subsidizes is production.
- seizethecheese 3y agoLittle Debbie’s would keep us alive in a famine, or keep the home front fed in a total war.
- thehappypm 3y agoExactly We need Little Debbie on the shelves, but the typical consumer to laugh it off Nd buy something better
- raincole 3y agoI'm not sure whether something's long history = its legitimation in modern society. Democracy has much shorter history than dictatorship. Also, it's (highly) likely that state-based food security is needed, but the US just does it wrong.
- kneebonian 3y ago> Also, it's (highly) likely that state-based food security is needed, but the US just does it wrong. I don't know about that the US is one of the few food independent nations out there.
- simple-thoughts 3y agoIf by democratic you mean rule by the demos, it has a very long history of at least 3000 years across multiple world regions. Even the much maligned managerial state has a history tracing back to ancient roots. While history is not a justification for evil, it does mean that extra caution should be taken when making changes to something that is a matter of life and death, such as food security. Often social systems that have evolved over long periods of time have done so for a reason- and in the case of food policy there’s a clear one - social stability. I’m willing to accept that market based mechanisms could improve food security, but it’s risky. As far as changing the current policy to promote the types of foods urban elites prefer, the result would be catastrophic as most people do not have the caloric needs nor the financial resources that the elites have. People don’t eat burgers because they’re stupid. Obesity is a hormonal disease not a food security one.