Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by stickfigure on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @03:45PM
(#22487875)
Western countries subsidize agriculture because there are a lot of farmers and they are a powerful voting block. In the US, they are especially influential in low-population states with high senator-to-citizen ratios.
Yeay democracy, I guess.
Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by corybrown on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @04:04PM
(#22488090)
Are there a lot of farmers in the US? I don't seek it out, but I've read a few times that small family farms are quite rare and most food is produced by huge agribusiness farms
Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by bdamm on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @05:17PM
(#22488759)
Agriculture is an enormous business in the USA, with 1% of the overall GDP. That may seem small, but consider that all USA industry combined is only 18% of the GDP. Many states in the country depend on agriculture as their #1 product. The USA is an exporter of food, with corn, beans, wheat and beets being the top crops.
Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by CodeCube on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @04:13PM
(#22488193)
Those agribusiness farms still employee people, and those people vote in the same ways as farmers, even though they may not own a farm
Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by Koremat6666 on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @03:39PM
(#22487799)
If infra for food transportation does not exist then the point is even more valid.
If I have village where no food can be imported and limited amount of agricultural land. If I grow khat how am I going to feed my family if outside food can not come in ? Will the villagers be willing to pay more khat even when food is scarce ? I think I am missing something.
Re:Malawi legalises the growing, selling and export of cannabis
by Retric on Wednesday March 04, 2020 @03:57PM
(#22488001)
Dry food is extremely easy to transport. For the farmer, they are only growing cash crops if they can sell it outside of village, but if they sell it that means they can also import food.
At worst it might be raising food prices for non farmers, but farmers are going to be strictly better off.
If the infrastructure for transporting that food exists, then yes. The problem with relying on food from other countries is that it undermined your (food) security. It's possible that this can be used as a tool in in relations against your country or in the time of a crisis you're more likely to be left hanging. Eg look at all those companies/countries that depend on some important goods from China. During the current crisis the resources in China will be used in China first. Now imagine that same situation, but with food. I think that's why western countries subsidize agriculture so heavily.