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kleinbl00  ·  3510 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Paul Krugman: The Libertarian Fantasy

Current US agricultural policy is a vestige of Nixon-era Cold War economic warfare. We grow the crops we do the way we do because it gave us leverage over the Soviet Union. We continue to do so because it gives us leverage with the WTO and the World Bank. "Crops" are corn, wheat, soy and potatoes because they can be banked, siloed and otherwise warehoused for protracted periods, making them "conflict stable."

"Food aid" to foreign countries is never fresh produce. There is no way to coax North Korea into behaving with apricots.