Babcock says justification of farm subsidies as a way to assure U.S. food supply is undermined by record farm income of recent years and the large amount of U.S. crops that are exported – half of wheat and 28 percent of soybeans – or devoted to industrial use; as much as 40 percent of corn is used in making biofuels.
“But transferring funds from farm subsidies to these types of public goods will not happen without a dramatic increase in the political power of groups advocating for the public good, which is a daunting challenge, given the diffuse nature of public good benefits and the highly targeted nature of the current subsidy programs to a relatively small number of farm households,” writes Babcock.