Ag Subsidies Revisited

I observed yesterday that even though agriculture subsidies are typically discussed as a canonical example of special interests controlling the political process, proposals to curtail the subsidies don’t actually poll very well suggesting a broader political problem. Tom Laskaway responds that the question was worded very generically and people probably don’t understand what’s actually being subsidized.

That’s probably true, but the public rarely has a particularly nuanced discussion of the issues they’re asking poll questions about. My only point was that this issue is often discussed among high-information people as if a politician who ran around the country saying “I’m going to cut agriculture subsidies!” would be greeted with widespread applause, albeit defeated by special interest politics in the Senate. The available evidence, though somewhat meager, suggests that this may not actually be the case. Instead, the farm lobby has its teeth not only in the congress but into the brains of the public, who seem to understand “farm subsidies” to mean something wholesome and good rather than endless rivers of corn and soybeans being transformed into processed foods at enormous cost to the environment and public health.