Subsidize Diverse Sustainable Farms not Corn
We need to have less subsidies to big agriculture and more to small sustainable farms. We need to support small, local family farms so they can provided healthy food at a price everyone can afford. This will not only make us a healthier people but also make our planet healthier. Large scale mono-agriculture is harmful to the environment and unsustainable. This way of growing food requires the use of large amount of pesticides and fertilizes which end up in our drinking water.
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Part of the problem is that we now subsidize unsustainable farming practices through subsidizing the oil industry to reduce the cost of fuel. This makes it more economical to grow food hundreds or even thousands of miles away from where it is ultimately consumed. Instead of pouring billions of dollars each year into big oil and big agriculture, we should spend the money buying up land to create local agricultural zones that dedicate more land to agriculture near large population centers. In fact, if each population center was required to get at least 50% of its food from within 100 miles it would force us to rely more on small farmers rather than on large mono-culture farms. This would be more ecologically sound and would help maintain a climate conducive for human life on the planet but it may not result in lower food costs.
The other issue is that there are too many people on the planet as it is. Artificially reducing the cost of food through subsidies creates an economic incentive for people to have more children than would occur if food were priced at its natural level based on the actual costs to produce it.
To boil it down I support local sustainable farming practices with mandates that there are enough farms within 100 miles of a major population center to provide 50% of the food consumed there. I don't support crop subsidies but I do support farm insurance subsidies.
I'm sure this isn't the full and complete answer but I believe it would be a huge step in the right direction.
SageWolf