• aqwxcvbnji [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Or how the U.S. effectively removed agricultural production from the free market a century ago.

    Can you elaborate a bit? Or point me to a source?

    • hogposting [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Here's a good starting point:

      The act was the first to make price support mandatory for corn, cotton, and wheat to help maintain a sufficient supply in low production periods along with marketing quotas to keep supply in line with market demand.

      There's massive government interference in agricultural markets because the free market flat-out doesn't work in that industry. Farmers plant in the spring but sell their crops in the fall, so in a free market they have to guess what the fall price of different crops will be and hope they get lucky. If they aren't lucky -- if you grow a bunch of corn but the price of corn bottoms out because everyone in your state grew a ton of corn, too -- you either make almost no profit, or you might even figure that the price is so low that harvesting isn't worth the cost.