Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is in Concord today as part of the Obama Administration's efforts to woe rural America. If he were serious about helping rural America, he would work to reverse the nation's disastrous farm policy.
Simply by eliminating federal subsidies for ethanol, Vilsack could help reduce food prices, improve fuel economy, and reduce America's counter-productive food assistance programs that prevent small farms in Africa and throughout the developing world from feeding their own populations.
Because farm subsidies encourage overproduction, the federal government ships the surplus food as "foreign aid". These surplus American goods, when they are not stolen by feuding warlords or confiscated by local tyrants, do help feed people. But they also crash the local farm economy, preventing local farmers from getting a decent price for their crops and discouraging farms from even entering the market.
And because our farm policies are so hideously distorting to international trade, other nations are allowed to impose punitive tariffs on American goods that would not otherwise be allowed under our trade agreements.
In exchange for higher food prices, lower fuel economy, diminished exports, and continued starvation, our farm policies allow politicians to hand out money. Which means we're not likely to see an end to this pernicious policy anytime soon.
But maybe the new Secretary of Agriculture can bring hope and change to America's farm policy. Vilsack is the former Governor of Iowa, so I'm not hopeful.
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