Looking at agricultural policy over the past three decades, it is difficult to disagree with my point of view: that the U.S. has been among the leading producers of agricultural products. The U.S. has been a le우리카지노ading producer of agricultural products because the cost of producing food has been so much lower, as a result of our policies, than those in many other industrialized countries바카라사이트.
The price of food as measured by the price of its ingredients has been lower in the U.S., and this has made it possible for us to reduce the price of inputs. It has made it possible for the U.S. to produce more of what it already produces.
Now, if agricultural products are in any way in our power to influence the prices for inputs—which, in the case of agricultural chemicals, may be the case, because these are highly controlled and monitored as to the amount of a particular substance that is in the product—then the U.S. will have a lot of an adv바카라사이트antage for this important role. If, however, agricultural products are only important to us because of the way they can produce more food that our needs dictate, then that is a much less direct way of reducing the prices of inputs and of food in general. The U.S. agriculture sector, by its very nature, is driven by needs, including supply, rather than by needs for agricultural output.
We have developed a whole set of policies that we hope will reduce price competition, especially competition for raw materials and for ingredients in agriculture products. As you have noticed, they provide for all these things in our food production system. However, they only go so far in increasing the prices of agricultural products. We have to do much more than that, and I have not mentioned all these different kinds of problems that could potentially come up when we try to reduce the prices of inputs—or even when we look at a number of other factors that have to do with prices of inputs.
Let me now give just a very brief sample of what I have said. As you might expect, it will be far, far from exhaustive. I have gone over many issues with a great deal of detail, but in the process, I hope I can give you some information that the reader can understand and also try to anticipate.
So, one major issue that has been discussed a lot in the literature—to use a good word in our industry—is the question of labor and work. We talk about how much food we produce. Our agriculture is in som