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Re:Is the Second Farm Crisis Upon Us? by singularity2001 on Sunday September 16, 2018 @02:48AM (#17997630)
“We’re heading to a place where we don’t have weavers; we just have shirt production.”

Not exactly the same but as long as we have national reservoirs and get politically enforced sustainability and diversity we should be fine.

Re:Is the Second Farm Crisis Upon Us? by lsc on Sunday September 16, 2018 @04:05AM (#17997860)
>politically enforced sustainability and diversity

This is important, and politically difficult. I mean, we subsidize farms to farm in America because it makes us much more secure against all sorts of potential problems. I, for one, think farm subsidies, if well done, are a very good use of my defense tax dollar.

But it's important that we see those subsidies as a defense subsidy and not, you know, just a handout to a particular class of people; This means that we need sustainable farming practices and we need crop diversity, as those are the only way to defend against some of the threats we face.

(I mean, I personally see it as "you don't want a subsidy? do what you like. But if you want a subsidy? you have to follow these best practices." then you set the subsidy numbers based on how many acres you think we need for that sort of thing.)

Re:Is the Second Farm Crisis Upon Us? by singularity2001 on Monday September 17, 2018 @04:09AM (#18004030)
Yes, conditional subsidies. Obvious in hindsight, thus brilliant. ++