Quote Originally Posted by Being View Post
One thing that stands out about the web site below is that it doesn't capture tarriffs that act as subsidies such as the case with sugar in the US.

Farm Subsidy Database/
I'm surprised Illinois ranks so high and Florida so low.

Also, hello!

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Food security issues is where my devotion to free marketism wavers a bit. I don't support farm subsidies per se and I think many government schemes in the agricultural space tend to increase prices and hurt everyone. But I do believe it's a legitimate interest for nations to develop some kind of "backup" supply for food, whether it's stockpiling of grain or something else.

Market and crop failures do happen, and they are usually absorbable at the global level with a sufficiently large market and free trade policies. But our ability to avoid widescale shortages is dependent on a lot of modern technology (communications, weather, transportation, futures markets, etc) that could totally screw things up once in a hundred years.

None of this calls for widescale collectivisation of course. But it's something that gives me a moment of pause.