That would allow people to buy food from where ever, instead of using agricultural subsidies to allow American agriculture to have unearned advantages in the global food market and suppress the development of food independence worldwide.
honestly, that used to be the deal pre-nixon i want to say. to placate two constiuencies (farmers and low income families) the government purchased "commodities" (as defined by USDA title... raw/minimally processed agricultural goods flourmeal, cornmeal, milk, butter, eggs, probably some vegetables even) to institute a "price floor" and guarantee a certain income to the farming households even if markets/futures were volatile. those commodities were available through literal food stamps, similar to the ration cards found in other countries like cuba today. no cash. just stamps for commodities and stamps were made available depending on the size of the family.
it was one of those no-brainer elegant public policies that was dismantled to become a massive giveaway to food processors, who get to purchase the raw commodities at below market prices (because now the big agricultural subsidy program is for direct payments based on acres planted), which they add some salt + sugar to and turn into a shelf-stable quickly prepared vehicle for diabetes and heart disease.
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That would allow people to buy food from where ever, instead of using agricultural subsidies to allow American agriculture to have unearned advantages in the global food market and suppress the development of food independence worldwide.
And of course, we can't have that. It's bad enough that it would help the poor in the US, but helping the poor globally?!
Sounds an awful lot like Communism.
honestly, that used to be the deal pre-nixon i want to say. to placate two constiuencies (farmers and low income families) the government purchased "commodities" (as defined by USDA title... raw/minimally processed agricultural goods flourmeal, cornmeal, milk, butter, eggs, probably some vegetables even) to institute a "price floor" and guarantee a certain income to the farming households even if markets/futures were volatile. those commodities were available through literal food stamps, similar to the ration cards found in other countries like cuba today. no cash. just stamps for commodities and stamps were made available depending on the size of the family.
it was one of those no-brainer elegant public policies that was dismantled to become a massive giveaway to food processors, who get to purchase the raw commodities at below market prices (because now the big agricultural subsidy program is for direct payments based on acres planted), which they add some salt + sugar to and turn into a shelf-stable quickly prepared vehicle for diabetes and heart disease.