Daniel Sumner on the Political Economy of Agriculture

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Books, History, Science, Philosophy, Courses, Interviews, Business, Economics, Ethics, Education

4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2015

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Daniel Sumner of the University of California talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about agricultural subsidies in the United States, the winners and losers from those subsidies, and how the structure of subsidies has changed from the New Deal to the present. Sumner also explains how American policies have affected foreign farmers.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:06.4	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:11.0	Our website is econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find links
0:16.2	and other information related to today's conversation.
0:19.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:23.2	back to 2006.
0:25.4	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:27.9	We'd love to hear from you.
0:32.2	Today is January 29, 2015, and my guest is Daniel Sumner, the Frank H. Buck Jr. distinguished
0:40.1	professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of California at Davis.
0:46.2	Dan, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:48.0	Thank you.
0:50.3	Our topic for today is agriculture and particular government subsidies and involvement in agriculture,
0:56.5	particularly in the United States at the federal level.
1:00.5	When did subsidies of a serious kind begin?
1:04.8	What are some of the variations in how different crops are treated over time?
1:11.6	Yeah, and like every simple question, of course, the answer is complicated.
1:16.6	In one sense, agricultural subsidies go back into the dark ages.
1:21.1	But here in the United States, the major farm programs, what we identify now as farm programs,
1:27.8	really started in the New Deal.
1:29.2	There were a few things prior to that here and there.
1:33.2	But the big farm subsidy program started with a New Deal, and they were part of Roosevelt's
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.