[ExI] Grain subsidies and externalized costs (Paleo/Primal health)

[Dave Sill]

I tried to just let this pass, but I couldn't.

On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 3:55 PM, J. Stanton <js_exi at gnolls.org> wrote:
>
> Dave Sill wrote:
>
>>> >  (Grains, particularly corn and soybeans, are indeed cheap, mostly
>>> > because
>>> >  they're heavily subsidized by our government...we are therefore
>>> > deliberately
>>> >  creating the very health problems we wring our hands about.)
>
>> Bullshit. Grains are cheap mostly because they aren't that expensive
>> to produce.
>
> I believe you've just disqualified yourself from further discussion on this
> topic by posting something blatantly counterfactual.

"J." then goes on to cite evidence that grain production in  the US is
subsidized, as if that proves his claim. It doesn't.

Grain is inexpensive everywhere in the world, not just the US.

US grain subsidies are on the order or $20 billion/year*. In 2009, the
US produced 60 million metric tons of wheat**, 333 million tons of
corn***, and a few million tons of barley and oats. That's less than
$50/ton or 2.5 cents/pound. Since a pound of wheat flour costs ~$2 and
a pound of corn meal costs ~$1, I think it's fair to say that the
subsidy isn't what's making grains cheap. And that's not even counting
soybeans.

-Dave

* http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2006/07/02/GR2006070200024.html
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy#United_States
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_wheat_production_statistics
*** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn#Production