On Wed, Apr 25, 2007 at 08:25:56AM -0500, Christopher M. Kelty wrote: > Also, my understanding, though very limited of EU subsidies is that > they are primarily focused on small and medium size farms, not the > megafarms of the US... but that may be propaganda?
most definitely not; EU subsidies go mainly to large farmers, although the largest EU farms may be smaller than the largest US ones. goods with a longer shelf life can be sold for less because the cost of those items that get spoiled and remain unsold does not need to be recovered from the subset of goods that are actually sold. to put it another way, the price a fresh carrot that is actually sold must include the price of all carrots that rotted before they were sold. so twinkies (and canned carrots) will always be cheaper than fresh carrots. the exception is when skewed capitalisation and a skewed market structure forces sellers of fresh produce to sell below market prices in order not to lose their entire crop, as is usually the case in india at the level of individual farmers, and is propagated upwards. -rishab
