Lots of businesses have been forced to close their doors thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. With much of the country sliding back into mask mandates and requirements to follow strict health and safety rules, the cost of staying in business has far outweighed the potential for profit in many cases. And in some industries, there’s simply no longer any demand for certain services.
But one thing Americans have continued to do throughout the pandemic, maybe even more so, was eat.
While farmers across the country had to contend with COVID-19 rules, they never faced a decline in demand for their product.
So why isn’t the agriculture industry thriving? It’s a bit more complicated than supply and demand. But it doesn’t have to be and it probably shouldn’t be.
The answers lie in the policies that have controlled farming for the last century– government subsidies and over-regulation. And while technically US farms operate within the free-market system, they hardly follow the basic rules of capitalism.
Capitalism requires supply and demand to set prices within the market. Meanwhile, America’s dairy industry is regulated by the federal government, with milk prices determined by a complicated pricing scheme that carves the nation into geographic “Federal Milk Marketing Order” blocs and derives the supposed value of a gallon of milk from commodity, component and class considerations instead of consumer demand and cost of production.
And it’s not just complicated price controls. Beyond standard operating costs like equipment and electricity, farmers have to deal with roughly 63,600 regulations as of 2019, 9,700 of which come from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alone. By comparison, there were only 6,200 regulations from the EPA on the agricultural industry twenty years earlier.
Yet while farmers have seen significant increases in their costs due to regulation, the prices they receive haven’t changed much in the last few years.
In that same year of 1999, for instance, a gallon of milk was only $2.88. Now a gallon of whole milk averages $3.45. Adjusting for inflation, that’s about $2.18 in 1999—cheaper than the actual 1999 price.
This means there is very little room for profit as a dairy farmer in today’s United States. The slow price growth coupled with the 3,000 new regulations that farmers have to contend with creates limited opportunities for profit. And while US fluid milk production has increased from 162.7 billion pounds to 223.2 billion pounds from 1999 to 2020, fluid milk sales have declined from around 33 percent of this production to only 20 percent in 2020.
Dairy, of course, is not the only agricultural sector. Taking into consideration all agricultural industries, 36 percent of farm income comes from government subsidies. Farmers aren’t determining how many animals to breed, how many crops to grow or how many cows to milk based on what the free market demands. More often than not, farmers decide what to plant based on how much government money they can get.
This type of government regulation disincentives entrepreneurialism and innovation. Even the successful commercial farms rely heavily on the government, receiving 73 percent of all subsidies, making many of them essentially government owned.
This is costing taxpayers more and more money every year. In 2020, farmers received $46 billion in direct aid from the federal government, the highest ever even adjusting for inflation. If farms were allowed to operate within a truly free market, prices would stabilize and supply would meet demand.
In a free-market system, it’s true that only the efficient survive. But is that such a bad thing? We should be encouraging farmers to be efficient and innovative—not propping them up to be quasi-government entities. Ultimately, it would make farmers stronger.
As the country continues to grapple with the fiscal problems from COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to make sure our money is being spent responsibly. Encouraging farms to be government-owned is far from responsible and puts our economy on a dangerous path towards socialism.
By over-regulating the agriculture industry, the government stifles growth and innovation, not allowing the forces of supply and demand to inform farmers’ business decisions. With artificial market forces (i.e. regulations) guiding farmers’ hands, the outcomes don’t allow for much profit or success for the food suppliers of our nation.
America will always need food. Let’s make sure the market keeps providing it.
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay.
Caitlin Gilligan
Caitlin Gilligan was born and raised in upstate New York. She works in county government, tutors high school math students, and coaches travel softball.
This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.
Most “Conservative” News Outlets Are on the Big Tech Teat
Not long ago, conservative media was not beholden to anyone. Today, most sites are stuck on the Big Tech gravy train.
I’ll keep this short. The rise of Pandemic Panic Theater, massive voter fraud, and other “taboo” topics have neutered a majority of conservative news sites. You’ll notice they are very careful about what topics they tackle. Sure, they’ll attack Critical Race Theory, Antifa, and the Biden-Harris regime, but you won’t see them going after George Soros, Bill Gates, the World Economic Forum, or the Deep State, among others.
The reason is simple. They are beholden to Big Tech, and Big Tech doesn’t allow certain topics to be discussed or they’ll cut you off. Far too many conservative news outlets rely on Google, Facebook, and Twitter for the bulk of their traffic. They depend on big checks from Google ads to keep the sites running. I don’t necessarily hold it against them. We all do what we need to do to survive. I just wish more would do like we have, which is to cut out Big Tech altogether.
We don’t get Google checks. We don’t have Facebook or Twitter buttons on our stories. We don’t have a YouTube Channel (banned), an Instagram profile (never made one), or a TikTok (no thanks, CCP). We’re not perfect, but we’re doing everything we can to not owe anything to anyone… other than our readers. We owe YOU the truth. We owe YOU the facts that others won’t reveal about topics that others won’t tackle. And we owe America, this great land that allows us to take hold of these opportunities.
Like I said, I don’t hold other conservative sites under too much scrutiny over their choices. It’s easy for people to point fingers when we’re not the ones paying their bills or supporting their families. I just wish there were more who would make the bold move. Today, only a handful of other major conservative news outlets have broken free from the Big Tech teat. Of course, we need help.
The best way you can help us grow and continue to bring proper news and opinions to the people is by donating. We appreciate everything, whether a dollar or $10,000. Anything brings us closer to a point of stability when we can hire writers, editors, and support staff to make the America First message louder. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal or Bitcoin as well. Bitcoin: 3A1ELVhGgrwrypwTJhPwnaTVGmuqyQrMB8
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We are also building partnerships with great conservative sites like The Liberty Daily and The Epoch Times to advance the message as loudly as possible, and we’re always looking for others with which to partner.
Some of our content is spread across multiple sites. Other pieces of content are unique. We write most of what we post but we also draw from those willing to allow us to share their quality articles, videos, and podcasts. We collect the best content from fellow conservative sites that give us permission to republish them. We’re not ego-driven; I’d much rather post a properly attributed story written by experts like Dr. Joseph Mercola or Natural News than rewrite it like so many outlets like to do. We’re not here to take credit. We’re here to spread the truth.
While donations are the best way to help, you can also support us by buying through our sponsors:
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- MyPatriotSupply: Stock up on long-term food, survival gear, and other things that you’ll need just in case things don’t recover and we keep heading towards apocalypse.
We know we could make a lot more money if we sold out like so many “conservative” publications out there. You won’t find Google ads on our site for a reason. Yes, they’re lucrative, but I don’t like getting paid by minions of Satan (I don’t like Google very much if you couldn’t tell).
Time is short. As the world spirals towards The Great Reset, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report and the other sites in the network going. Our promise is this: We will never sell out America. If that means we’re going to struggle for a while or even indefinitely, so be it. Integrity first. Truth first. America first.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
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