We now return to your regularly schedule program.

Okay I didn't get back to those Gibson's Critera as quickly as I could have. Because I got kind of bored thinking about companies where the only product is an information transaction. But, I feel it's important to keep exploring these criteria, and I'd like to do so using the topic of Ecological Economics paper, which I'm avoiding starting right now, which is about...

Agriculture, and Agricultural Subsidies

So let's examine how this criteria can be applied to agriculture and US Ag Policy, because why not?

3. Ensure that sufficiency and effective choices for all are pursued in ways that reduce dangerous gaps in sufficiency and opportunity (and health, security, social recognition, political influence, etc.) between the rich and the poor.

Here in the US we have a Cheap Food Policy. Our tax dollars subsidize the growing of grains for human consumption and feed for animals. The theory behind this is that it will become cheaper for poor people to afford groceries. The reality is that it unnaturally lowers the cost to produce corn, wheat and soy which are used to make high-fructose corn syrup, breads and soy-based fake meats. These products are now super cheap, and readily available to the poor. The result has been record rates of Type 2 Diabetes, ADHD and Obesity among poor Americans. Globally, our cheap exports are harming the agricultural economies of developing nations. In the ironic twist that history is so good at, these subsidies were crafted in part to help poor Americans, poor farmer's specifically, during the Great Depression.

So how could we craft a food policy in this country to reduce the gaps in sufficiency and opportunity between the rich and poor?

End All Agriculture Subsidies: This would raise the price of cheap sugars and carbohydrates and reduce the incentives to grow products that are less healthy than fruits and vegetables, which don't receive any subsidies. I am not an economist so I don't know if this re-balancing would cause bell peppers to be more affordable than their comparable weight in Cool Ranch Doritos. So if necessary, the minimum wage should be raised, and the WIC program expanded to cover a greater variety of produce. This balancing of costs and greater buying power would certainly expand 'Effective Choices' for the American working poor.

How to level Political Influence between the haves and have nots with the farm bill? I don't really know. Here's an Idea: let's change the presidential primary system so that Iowa is not always the first caucus state to decide who gets to be president. Their 'Pole Position' has lead politicians to pander to Iowa's local corn industry at the expense of the rest of the industry.

I feel there is an opportunity in here somewhere to expand labor opportunities. Oh that's right, Immigration! Another reason our food is so cheap is because we don't pay an honest wage to the folks who harvest it. We exploit workers from Mexico and further south. So let's reform our Immigration and Enforcement policies to ensure that the people who harvest the crops that feed us are American citizens, afforded the full protection of American labor laws. Mmmm, that's good equality!

Okay, we've gone off on some tangents here tonight. But I think we might have learned something. We'll return next time with Criteria #4 Inter-generational Equity!!