[txru]

America has never had a famine, though.

Indeed, aside from avocados recently and a few times when there were bacteria scares, I can't think of any time where any American agricultural product couldn't be found in stores.

I definitely believe that the farm subsidies are poorly targeted, but those things above aren't to be snorted at.

[yasth]

I assure you that you could keep America famine free for far less. Indeed pretty much the entire support structure is only 80 years old at the oldest, so america managed just fine for a far longer period of time without supports and without a famine than with them.

Also there are some products (like rice) just shouldn't have 100% availability of US grown products. It isn't like the US will starve without US grown rice, and the US long supported far more rice than was profitable. Importantly the US dropped lots of subsidies on rice, and production wasn't all that impacted (3% declines).

So yeah, you might also say that US support of auto makers is good because never have you been completely unable to find a new US made car to buy, but that doesn't make it necessary and certainly doesn't make it good policy.

[hackuser]

> America has never had a famine, though.

I'm not sure I agree:

* We've had massive production problems, such as in the Dust Bowl.

* Many Americans are malnourished; the US is not getting enough food to them by whatever mechanism (supermarkets, food stamps, etc.).

Also, is it true that there were no famines in the 150 years before the Great Depression, even localized ones (i.e., not nationwide)?

[zorpner]

America has -- just not in living memory. The single greatest contributor to the absurd American prosperity of the first half of the 20th century is the mysterious extinction of the Rocky Mountain locust, leaving North America the only major landmass with agricultural potential and no native locust species.