Just Stop the Ag Subsidies

Yesterday on 97.3 (yes, I sometimes listen to Alice) the morning show people said a few words about farmers markets, and one of them said that organic fruit and vegetables would be a whole lot cheaper if fruit and vegetables got subsidies just like corn, meat, and dairy - as if it's the lack of subsidies for fresh fruit and vegetables that makes them so expensive.

Here's the thing: I don't have any numbers right now, but I would bet that removing subsidies for corn, meat, and dairy would make fresh fruit and vegetables less expensive. When animal farmers would have to pay the full price to raise their animals, they would of course transfer the cost to the consumers, who would then reduce the amount of meat and other animal products that they eat. When the demand for meat reduces, so will the production of it, which would free up some of the resources used to make meat and other animal products. A lot of the land and water that went to make meat and food for animals (which is A Lot) would instead go to the production of foods for human consumption - fruits and vegetables. This would increase the supply of fruits and vegetables, and lower their price.

Subsidies for fruit and vegetables would just raise taxes, and taxes hurt the poor. And subsidies for fruit and vegetables probably wouldn't address the distortions in agribusiness, unless they were higher than the subsidies for cattle feed and meat. Of course, getting subsidies for fruits and vegetables would probably be a lot easier than getting rid of the subsidies for corn, meat, and other animal products. Once you get someone rich off of government largess, they're going to kick and scream when you even think about reducing their benefits.

But I wonder if getting "effective" subsidies for fruits and vegetables would really be that much easier. If subsidies for fruits and vegetables are effective, then they would lead people to increase their fruit and vegetable intake and drastically reduce their meat intake. And that would hurt the meat and cattle feed farmers just as much as slashing Big Ag's corporate welfare would. I bet that meat and cattle feed farmers would kick scream, and shit their pants over effective fruit and vegetable subsidies almost or as much as they would over ending agricultural subsidies alltogether.