Agricultural subsidies are a terrible example because they're so corrupt. The cheese reserve doesn't exist because it's gonna protect Americans from starvation.

Agricultural subsidies are a terrible example because they're so corrupt. The cheese reserve doesn't exist because it's gonna protect Americans from starvation. It exists because the dairy industry massively overproduces. Only a small amount gets converted into cheese. Millions of gallons just get dumped[1]. The dairy industry is entirely unsustainable, especially given that the government keeps the price of milk low because it's considered vital for children's development, dairy lobby propaganda with no basis in fact. And these massive subsidies don't even help small farmers. The only way to keep up with the absurd artificial demand is massive factory farming of genetically engineered super cows bred in a lab to produce as much milk as possible with a life expectancy a third of a normal cow. [1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-dairy-farmers-dump-43-million-gallons-of-excess-milk-1476284353 https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-dairy-farmers-dump-43-... (I guess this isn't really relevant to the OP, but I recently read a fantastic book about the dairy industry and now I can't shut up).