bread and circuses

       One of the pillars of the American system since the middle of the 20th century is cheap food for the masses.   Ever since the days of parity in the late 1940s,  American farmers have been crushed by government regulations designed to keep food cheap.  The industrialization of agriculture drove many small family farmers out of business.  My own father was one of these victims.  He owned a small egg producing farm on eastern Long Island and wound up losing it as egg production shifted to factory farms with hundreds of thousands of birds in cages rather than the free range operations with a few thousand layers.

     Thousands of other small egg producers were also driven off the land in the 50s as well as small meat and vegetable growers.   The same happened to many small supermarkets run as mom and pop operations.  By consolidating all these farms and stores food prices have remained lower here than in most countries.   

     Now people are complaining about grocery prices as mega farms, processors and retailers seek to increase their margins.  More and more people are relying on cheaper highly processed foodlike substances which are causing widespread obesity problems.  All because the government actively and passively encouraged the consolidation which politicians now rail against.