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It's the same thing that Jerome talks about with gas in Russia. It would be far more effeicient to hand out cash to the starving masses so they can afford expensive bread (gas) compared to subsidizing the bread. But in a corrupt society with a weak government it's far easier for officials to skim off cash benefits compared to skiming off bread subsidies.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Fri Apr 18th, 2008 at 03:23:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
It depends. Maybe you want to help bread producers rather than all sellers. Maybe the local agricultural industry specifically needs high production prices to be sustainable.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Fri Apr 18th, 2008 at 08:25:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I was talking about reducing the poverty gulf to make sure poor people don't starve. I think that is a crucial policy for any state, to say the least, and it absolutely pales compared to helping agribusiness.

And if your local agricultural industry can't survive without subsidies, you should really be doing other things than farming.

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid (arvid.hallen at gmail.com) on Sat Apr 19th, 2008 at 02:40:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Have you seen my diary ? Quite often, the poor people actually starving are the food producers, not the food buyers. In many places, food production isn't done by agribusiness. It is done in small farms, and doesn't qualify as a "food industry".

Since most developed countries consider food independence as worthy to defend, they subsidize their own agriculture. The end result is that any local farming sector needs subsidies to survive, and even more to develop and become more productive.

Of course, thanks to the Washington consensus which followed more or less the principles you put forward, agricultural development was stuck, and even reversed, for much of the 80's and 90's. And, well, famines happened.

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sat Apr 19th, 2008 at 04:30:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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