Ag is subsidized to the hilt. That’s why food is so cheap. That and borderline wages for labour.
We only subsidize commodity ag that is publicly listed in financial markets.
This is also the reason why food growing(non commodity market) farms don’t get sufficient investment or experience the benefits of cutting edge tech. Investors can see returns on already optimized markets because there is room to introduce new services and products..that is enhanced by AI and subsequently data collection on steroids.
None of this is going to end well. Hubris. We need to consume less meat, automate Ag and focus on plant based nutrition(not fake meat altho cell based vat created meat has its place).
That plant tape technology was developed in Spain and acquired by a Salinas lettuce company. They still struggle with margins due to CA labour costs and regulations. At some point, even economies of scale will totter when things become too big.
In Ag, the better you do, you lose..because quantity creates glut and farmers are at the bottom of the supply chain of cheap food. Any increase in food prices would only benefit the top. But with new tech, the farmers are bearing the burden of new technology cost without seeing an increase in revenue.
This has already led to the demise of the dairy industry. Ditto with grain and commodity crops. These are also heavily subsidized. Cheap food is subsidized by tax payers and farmers get shiny new tech toys on credit and eventually will fold. Because. Subsidies never work. I am reminded of that quote in catcher in the rye.
Agriculture and farming is one of the most subsidised industries in western world. Governments need to subsidise local agriculture as it cannot compete with third world countries and it is a matter of national security to be able to feed your population in case of a conflict, for example. This is a very poor example of capitalism and free market as it's super regulated.
Same. This is about meat, although since a lot of our land is used to grow feed for livestock, subsidies for plant agriculture are indirectly subsidizing inefficient animal agriculture.
If we're going to subsidize something agriculture is one of the things i'd be willing to foot the bill for. The invisible hand of the market is not a good way to make sure that everyone stays fed.
We subsidize American agriculture because its important. We should do the same for other industries. I'm not sorry public services and concepts like this fly in the face of economic ideology that profit motive is the end-all be-all.
government subsidizes everything to one level or another. to say it is subsidized higher than other sectors within agriculture is more meme than fact. some segments may be depending on your country. in the US we subsidize everything to include corn for ethanol to cotton which we ship to China and receive back as finished clothing.
the issue has always been subsidies are politicians means to show their constituents they are doing their job, bringing home the bacon. however the rules and regulations are stacked such that only very large farms and organizations see real benefit.
US wise, most subsidies are towards guarantees of rates. Dairy and Meat get picked on a lot because they are very noticeable but much of the numbers assigned to them are because corn is a feed product and the biggest crop in the US by far. Throw in that many who don't care for animal farming will then associate any other subsidy they can find, to include WIC payments shows just how much a stretch it becomes Outside of pandemic years the estimates for all of agriculture in the US ranges from the low twenties in billions to highs in fifties. Again, depends on what you count.
The real issue isn't what we are subsidizing in this case but that we don't insure that the small farms are compensated as well as large private and commercial farms are because the regulatory burden puts obtaining such funds into the category of not worth the time and money
Agriculture already is heavily subsidizing corn, wheat, soy, all for the precious meat, eggs and milk. It's heaven in the keto world.
Do you see billions of dollars for the broccoli industry in subsidies? Don't think so.
Keto is a diet for the rich, plant-based diet with occasional meat (once per month) for the poor.
The energy efficiency of the plant to flesh conversion is ridiculously low. Feeding a world on the keto is a luxurious feat. Plant-based diet is a much more rational choice for feeding the world.
The government system of subsidizing production is a good thing. The problem is it's not planned enough (or planned to service certain interests). When we didn't have subsidies, we had underproduction of food crops because of the vagaries of market forces. This lead to starvation and displacement.
However, I think I could agree that corn and soy in particular are overproduced. I've heard that you can eat less soy by eating soybeans than by eating livestock raised on it.
We only subsidize commodity ag that is publicly listed in financial markets.
This is also the reason why food growing(non commodity market) farms don’t get sufficient investment or experience the benefits of cutting edge tech. Investors can see returns on already optimized markets because there is room to introduce new services and products..that is enhanced by AI and subsequently data collection on steroids.
None of this is going to end well. Hubris. We need to consume less meat, automate Ag and focus on plant based nutrition(not fake meat altho cell based vat created meat has its place).
reply