Letters to the Editor
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Commoditization:@br in sea
Commoditization is a vital element in creating large, liquid markets in food and other commodities. Uniform quality assures a fair price, and allows products to be shipped to urban centers, and processed into finished products. (By the mid-century experts say 2/3's of the worlds' people will live in cities).
There is no doubt that this global market allows us to eat a balanced diet all year, regardless of what crops are in season. The primary threats to this are fertlizer shortages, and global warming, which could disrupt the weather in the grain planting zones, where mechanical harvesting is used to keep costs down.
What happens when it is no longer economically feasible to fly grapes from Chile to American supermarkets? As one economic analyst noted, the American consumer is facing a period of diminished choices. In the final outcome monoculture growers will drop their prices, government will subsidize their losses, and smaller farmers will be forced out of business because they cannot compete. During the first great depression farmers couldn't find a market for their products, and facing pressure from increasing property taxes many of them lost their land. This time around it probably won't be any different, simply because shifting agriculture to small farms implies that growers will be unable to keep up with demand.
Republicans have done a better job of helping small business owners, and might benefit poltically in that case.