Farm Subsidies

Freakonomics has a good Q&A up about the benefits (none) of farm subsidies.

I want to use this opportunity to vent quickly on American sugar cartel. Did you know that Americans pay roughly three times the price for sugar as the rest of the world? Seriously. We pay that much because the government restricts sugar imports. Right now the sugar lobby (it does exist) is trying to persuade Congress to buy sugar imports from Mexico just so that American consumers can't buy them. This is disgusting not only because restriction on trade is almost always a terrible idea, but also because it has a terrible effect on Americans: death.

Since sugar costs so much soft drink manufacturers (to take but one example) opt to substitute sweeteners for sugar because it's more cost effective. Their choice: high fructose corn syrup. This makes farmers and the corn lobby happy, but makes the rest of us miserable. Not only does high fructose corn syrup taste worse than sugar, but it's much more unhealthy. Fructose reduces two enzymes critical to heart health. The fructose in fruits isn't likely to cause this problem, but high levels of fructose -- like high fructose corn syrup -- is.

So thanks, Government, for policies that are both unhelpful and harmful to the average American.

Friday, July 25, 2008