This is important. We’ve blogged a little about high food prices, and we’re keeping an eye on the subject ourselves, especially where it gives us the chance to bang on again about the role of agricultural biodiversty. But it isn’t a mainstream theme here, not least because there are so many other sources. Still, good though those resources may be, many are not able to give the long-term background to why things, notably subsidies, are the way they are. So, here’s a guest post at the ever-informative Gristmill, which lays bare some of the reasons that lie behind the distorted market for commodity crops.
[H]ow did we get here? How did our modern, abundant, and affordable food system run aground? In a sector that is global in reach, absolutely essential (we must eat, after all), and includes the politics of saving family farms and ending hunger, there is no simple, singular answer. A lot of it has to do with economics and politics. Most of it has to do with what goes into making a box of cereal, and why we even have boxed cereal.