"Organic" Farming and the True Cost of Food-A Small Farmers Perspective

[quaker bill]

116. The answer is not cheap food

The answer is that we find a way to stop subsidizing poverty wage employment. Mega retail and fast food pays wages so low that large portions of their employees must be subsidized by government with block grant housing, SNAP, WIC, TANF... These folks need cheap food, which is kept cheap by federal ag programs to control prices at taxpayer expense.

The actual solution for poor and working class folks is not spending taxpayer dollars to keep the cost of food down, but bringing wages up. You cannot spend enough taxpayer dollars to keep the cost of everything low. It is far easier to require higher wages than it is to collect and appropriate taxes to make up the difference.

This is the bit that the RW never gets, if they really want to end the "culture of dependency", the only real answer is a living wage. Anything else is smoke and mirrors.