Unattainable panacea

September 12, 2024

It's a rather common sense approach that products should be produced where that production is at its lowest cost, and then those products flow to markets which need them. There are some caveats, such as reasonable working conditions. Low-cost production should never be at the expense of workers, for example. But things being generally even, then low cost of production should matter.

Now, in terms of agriculture, there is another factor at play, and that is self-sufficiency in terms of food production. It would be nice that the world were at a point where you could always rely on other countries for food supplies; that would allow freer trade to happen naturally.

But too often, a change in government, a disagreement flaring into armed conflict, and even factors such as ocean freight rates make relying too heavily on food imports is a risk. Still, most countries at least talk a good game regarding free trade, but frankly, it is only a good idea until such time a country deems it politically expedient to bolster a segment of its economy with protection tariffs or payouts or a country seeks some sort of leverage against another.