Agribusiness or the Government?: Why can't farmers make a living farming any more? Fast Food Nation hypothesized it was the result of the consolidation of the middle markets. That even with lots of farmers and lots of consumers, most of our food was flowing through a handful of companies who set the prices on both ends, taking the largest profit for themselves. An interesting hypothesis, and it makes sense from an economic standpoint. (Of course, most of those profits are produced by "value-added" transformations to our food, because why slice a potato when you can have Ore Ida do it for you?) But last week's NY Times presented an alternate (or complementary) hypothesis, based on the way our farm subsidy system works.

Briefly, FDR set up a subsidy system in the wake of the Depression. The system was designed to keep the price for storeable staples above a certain floor. As long as the price was above that floor, farmers were encouraged to sell. If the market price dropped below that floor, the government would offer the farmer a loan (equal to the cost of selling the grain at the floor price) to store the staple until the price came back up. If the price didn't come back up, the gov't would take the grain off the farmer's hands, and the loan was wiped out. If it did, the farmer sold the grain and paid back the loan. Nixon, in response to rising grain prices, told his Secretary of Agriculture to get grain production up by any means necessary. This was the advent of our modern farm subsidy program, where farmers were paid for production, period. (To see the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/12/magazine/12WWLN.html?ex=1067140800&en=72c48b625b06a2e9&ei=5070)

Is there a reason we should care? The fear of agribusiness taking over the entire food supply worries me. I hear the species of bananas most popular in this country might go extinct (not that I'm crying about losing BANANAS, the cucumber of the fruit kingdom) because of a disease sweeping through the groves. There are certainly risks to too much consolidation in the agriculture business.

But what about that most critical of issues when it comes to food - taste. I guess most people don't care. (FFN also talks about how virtually all of those "value-added" foods also have flavor added to make them taste the way they should.) But (unprocessed) food tastes better when it's grown locally!

Why are Philadelphians (and some Ohioans, Indianans, and Floridians) lucky? Because, with the Amish so close by, we are virtually guaranteed continued access to fresh, seasonal, local produce. (And meat. and lemonade. and cinnamon bread. and pretzel doughnuts. and who wants to have lunch at the amish food place tomorrow?) But hopefully, someday, you won't need to give up electricity to be able to survive on a farmer's income.