Abstract
In this article I respond to the obligation to institute the policy of decoupled crop subsidies as is provided in Pilchman’s article “Money for Nothing: Are decoupled Crop Subsidies Just?” With growing problems of poor nutrition in the United States there have been two different but related phenomenon that have appeared. First, the obesity epidemic that has ravaged the nation and left an increasing number of people very unhealthy; and second, the phenomenon of food deserts where individuals are unable to access fresh fruits and vegetables. A possible solution to this problem, as has been proposed by some, is to institute a decoupled crop subsidy that would increase the production of fruits and vegetables in the United States. In this paper I explore the possible unintended consequences of this policy and how it may violate liberal international conceptions of justice. I conclude that there must be further empirical research before anyone can call decoupled crop subsidies an obligation to justice.
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Notes
This shows the potential for another criticism of Pilchman’s work that I do not show here. The fact that getting rid of the existing structure of corn subsidies might cause increased demand for fruit and vegetables. This would further have the advantage of less actions by the government than the creation of decoupled crop subsidy.
Typically, a food desert is an urban area that is farther than one mile from a fresh food source or rural area that is more than ten miles from a fresh food source.
The reason that food is a moral is issue for liberal schools of thought is because of the importance of the individual. The individual is the essential unit of concern and the individual cannot function without sufficient nutrition to be able to live a life worth living.
Currently decoupled crop subsidies would only function if they provided enough money to the farmers that they would be able to reasonably support themselves. Essentially this needs to be a feasible alternative income source.
This is partially because of Pilchman’s standing in the liberal school of thought. These are rational economic actors.
Pilchman admits that his conclusions may be problematic given additional empirical information towards the end of his argument. He writes that, “Whether decoupled subsidies are obligatory depends, in part, on whether they will in fact mitigate the problems produced by [the United States] agricultural system” (Pilchman 1119).This shows that Pilchman realized that his work was somewhat suspectable to attack from an empirical perspective.
Agricultural exports in this scenario include all types of agriculture goods. This can include things that are obviously not fruits and vegetables like ethanol and corn. However, as is shown just a sentence later there is significant amount of fruit and vegetable import to Canada from the United States.
2003 was the year that fruit and vegetable tariffs were stopped between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
These stages are heavily reinforced by what happened to the American fruit and vegetable market after the NAFTA trade liberalization went into effect.
Some crops may behave differently, there are a lot of assumptions going on here about consumers responding to rational economic assumptions of wanting to have more goods when they are a lower price. However, the point is that there is a plausible path for economic analysis going on here.
This may be an overly reductive version of what these hometown organizations are. However, for the purpose of my argument, the fostering of a relationship between the Mexicans in the United States and their hometown is what is important for this analysis.
It is important to clarify here that I am not saying that Mexicans immigrating to the United States is bad thing. The problem is that they are not given choice in the fact to immigrate. Instead, they are forced to either be extremely poor or go through the currently hard process of coming to the United States legally or illegally. The big problem here is being robbed of individual choice.
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Gordon, S.P. Just Food: Why We Need to Think More About Decoupled Crop Subsidies as an Obligation to Justice. J Agric Environ Ethics 33, 355–367 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-020-09820-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-020-09820-5