Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[NullForceOmega]

The US isn't even farming most of our good farmland.  The Government PAYS farmers to not grow crops on a simply gargantuan chunk of the available fertile land.

[Levi]

The US isn't even farming most of our good farmland.  The Government PAYS farmers to not grow crops on a simply gargantuan chunk of the available fertile land.

I'd love some details on that.  Seems counter-intuitive.

[NullForceOmega]

I'm bad at sourcing, my wife has the details and I will try to convince her to pull some references when she gets home.  It mostly breaks down to the fact that If we used all of our farmland we would produce enough to feed the whole planet, but we would be unable to ship or store it before it spoils, it would likely kill the entire world food economy also.

[TempAcc]

Agricultural Adjustment Act

[Levi]

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Weird.  I'm surprised it stuck around so long.  Maybe they should get rid of that and depend more on the free market to determine supply/demand.   

[NullForceOmega]

I'm completely down with another great depression and dust-bowl, let's do that.

[Culise]

Agricultural Adjustment Act

Not quite the right link; that one was declared unconstitutional as the article itself says.  This Agricultural Adjustment Act is the one you're looking for, and as NullForceOmega points out, it was intended to prevent a full-on food glut that would devastate the American agricultural economy.  Nowadays, with even advances in refrigeration and food storage, the American grain belt probably couldn't feed the whole world, but it could definitely depress global prices tremendously with significant knock-on effects for farmers in nations that don't have access to the resources available to major agribusinesses. 

EDIT:
That said, it's probably worth noting that this is largely an older concern; while still present, paying for fallow fields is not nearly as pertinent nowadays given the state of agriculture.  One of the larger things pulling fields away from food crops and to other purposes is biofuel subsidies.  If you're growing crops, you'll get more money for burning it in engines than feeding people, since engines aren't nearly as picky about taste or quality.  Though people's specific numbers vary, the shift from food to fuel has been marked as one of the significant contributing factors towards the 2008 food crisis that helped spark the Arab Spring. 

[NullForceOmega]

Thanks for the help Culise, the 'feed the world' part was hyperbole, but I think that speaks pretty loudly about the economic impact.

[Angle]

Nowadays, with even advances in refrigeration and food storage, the American grain belt probably couldn't feed the whole world, but it could definitely depress global prices tremendously with significant knock-on effects for farmers in nations that don't have access to the resources available to major agribusinesses. 

I thought we were already doing that?

[BFEL]

Nowadays, with even advances in refrigeration and food storage, the American grain belt probably couldn't feed the whole world, but it could definitely depress global prices tremendously with significant knock-on effects for farmers in nations that don't have access to the resources available to major agribusinesses. 

I thought we were already doing that?

Of course not! That would imply exporting something other then Democracy and Dronestrikes!

Also:

HAHA NO ONE GOT MY REFERENCE!
YOU HAVE ALL FAILED THE WORLD!

Well, I don't see what you did there.
Is that because of the band electric eels?

Actually its called Electric Eel Shock, and it has a song called "Rock and Roll Can Rescue The World"
Assuming that its a real band and wasn't just made up for that obscure game I played...hmm...EDIT: Ok yes, real band. YAY.

[Culise]

Nowadays, with even advances in refrigeration and food storage, the American grain belt probably couldn't feed the whole world, but it could definitely depress global prices tremendously with significant knock-on effects for farmers in nations that don't have access to the resources available to major agribusinesses. 

I thought we were already doing that?

Sorry, I slipped my edit in only to find two people posted in the interim.  Actually, the truth of the matter is just the opposite; food prices have been going up in the last few years.  There was a major spike only a few years ago due to shortfalls in local supply, which has been a significant contributor to unrest in more marginal economies.  It's not because fields have been fallow, however, but rather because of a combination of issues - droughts in food-producing regions (especially California, which has been exacerbated by local intensive agriculture), knock-on effects from rising oil prices which affected transportation costs, and the greater profit margins in biofuels.  Letting fields lie fallow isn't nearly profitable as it used to be, even for the ADA subsidies, not when you can be picking up biofuel subsidies and selling your harvest at the same time.  Give me a tick, and I can locate and edit in a food price index chart.

EDIT:
OK, from the UN FAO's index data here, I charted out the following.  In fact, my assertion wasn't quite accurate when it comes to the most recent.  While food price indices are still universally higher than before the food crisis hit in 07-08, they have actually been consistently declining for the last few years.  We might actually see a return to 90s-level prices by the end of the decade, if the trend isn't reversed again. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, apparently more fields were left fallow than I thought; in 2008, an estimated 8% of American fields were left idled in the name of environmental conservation. 

[SirQuiamus]

"But what can we do to stop climate change and save the planet? Do personal choices really matter at all?"

==> Just a quick reminder for those who have not already bookmarked this.

[BFEL]

"But what can we do to stop climate change and save the planet? Do personal choices really matter at all?"

==> Just a quick reminder for those who have not already bookmarked this.

Alternatively, someone figure out GODDAMN FUSION so we can GODDAMN CHANGE THINGS ON A GODDAMN ATOMIC LEVEL.

[Angle]

Sure, but what can we do?

[Culise]

Didn't you see BFEL?  Invent magic.