“Intended” Consequences for Farm Policy
Sep 10, 2009
By Steve Cornett
You students of farm policy should take the time to go read Michael Pollan’s thoughts on the health care debate this morning. It’s at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/10/opinion/10pollan.html.
To sum it up, he thinks requiring health insurance companies to offer universal coverage, as the president wants to do, will cause them to put their lobbyists to work at ending grain subsidies. So that would be an intended consequence of universal health insurance.
Mr. Pollan may have a jaundiced view of how American politics work, but he has a large and—more importantly, influential—following. They blame post-Depression farm policies for a lot of problems, including fat kids, high health care costs, global warming and poor fishing at the mouth of the Mississippi.
I’m not here to argue one way or the other. It’s just a take I haven’t heard at the coffee shop, and thought you might find of interest.
