Farm policy and the gravity exerted by a Quarter Pounder with cheese

The governor of a Midwestern state was interviewed recently on CNBC and made the statement that the farm programs will no longer subsidize production. Instead, they will subsidize conservation.

The political reality is that it is more popular right now to put money into so-called "green" programs than those aimed at producing an abundant, cheap food supply.

Things, of course, change.

My old friend and mentor, Syl Marking, once commented during a Soybean Digest planning meeting that public perception and attitudes swing as if they're on a pedulum. "They only have so much momentum in one direction," Syl said, "and then they stall out briefly and swing back the other way."

Conservation has only so much momentum. What will slow it down? I suspect it will be the gravity exerted by the price of a Quarter Pounder with cheese (QPWC). After all, it combines both the meat and dairy food groups, both of which are fed by grain production.

An ag economist somewhere should start tracking the price of a QPWC and compare it to public attitudes about farm policy and such. Start now because the price of a QPWC has not been severely affected yet by the ethanol boom or whatever new farm program comes into play.

I suspect that when the price of a QPWC creeps up another $2 that Americans will be demanding cheap food again.

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