Are we going to keep starving Africa in the name of feeding it? Probably.
When the U.S. ships food to Africa for “famine relief,” we help put African farmers out of business. Some starve. Some join militias. And all to put a few more pennies in the hands of American land barons … sorry, that’s “family farmers.”
The very least we ought to get out of the disgustingly horrible farm bill now making its way through Congress with bipartisan support is some change in that policy. BushCo is backing it, but the agriculture-wallahs are mostly against it.
I wonder if one of the Democratic Presidential candidates will dare to risk the Wrath of Iowa and do the right thing?
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman