What we’re dealing with is the crop subsidy paradox.
Pointing fingers at Big Ag, both index and middle, is like an Olympic sport in some circles. This nefarious entity is singled out as the culprit for everything from the decline of butterfly and bumblebee populations to the vast expansion of the American waistline. Climate change, depleted aquifers and toxic algae blooms? They get blamed on Big Ag, too.
So, why exactly has the image of modern agriculture come to consist largely of herbicide-drenched GMO crops stretching to the horizon and livestock wallowing shoulder to shoulder in their own manure? The answer, in part, lies in the agricultural subsidy system: Farmers grow what the government pays them to.
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