Actually, we started subsidizing farms to compete against the Soviet Union durin... | Hacker News

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asdfman123 on Aug 9, 2019 | parent | context | favorite | on: Eat less meat: UN climate change report calls for ...

Actually, we started subsidizing farms to compete against the Soviet Union during the cold war, to demonstrate the superiority of "capitalism."

They served their purpose well, but now they're almost impossible to remove.

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/farms-race/

philwelch on Aug 9, 2019 [–]

Farm subsidies started during the New Deal. I believe one effect of those subsidies was to maintain a reserve of farm capacity that was used in WWII to provide needed food aid to our allies, including the Soviets.

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