Student Voice: Keep the Government Away From Our Food Choices!
The U.S. Constitution does not charge the federal government with any duties related to the production or consumption of food. Therefore, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) should propose, Congress should vote for, and President Trump should sign a bill that eliminates agencies like the USDA and programs such as farm subsidies. Public opinion and the balance of power in Washington D.C. in upcoming years gives us an unprecedented opportunity to restore the freedom of American families to make their own food choices and the ability of American farmers to respond to market demands free of political coercion.
The case for those much-needed reforms was made three decades ago by economist Ken Schoolland in his global best-seller, The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey. His chapter “The Food Police” reveals the absurdity of trying to replace voluntary market interactions between producers and consumers with political planning. In that fictional story, the government punishes the best farmers because they produce “too much” food — an anti-social behavior that leads to lower prices and makes it hard for their lazy and incompetent neighbors to compete.
The misadventures of Mr. Gullible continue in the chapter “Booting Production,” where he learns about a government scheme to pay the shoemakers to not make shoes. Restricting the supply aims to raise the prices, resulting in higher income for these producers. The intention is to expand the program later by paying all domestic producers not to work. It’s done in the hope that everyone will enjoy higher living standards. You think such foolishness only happens in fairy tales? Actually, FDR’s New Deal paid farmers not to grow food while Americans were starving. More recently, Biden’s Green New Deal paid our farmers to stay idle.
Why did both presidents implement such destructive reforms, led by flawed macroeconomic analyses and crackpot environmental theories? Because in a democracy, bad economics often makes good politics. When the government replaces the customer in picking winners and losers, policymaking serves special interest groups at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. Small numbers of domestic producers receive large per-capita benefits from tariffs or subsidies. They finance campaigns and get what they want. The costs fall on hundreds of millions of Americans, none of whom has an incentive to oppose or even learn about the harmful interventions.
Providing government loans for students to go to college benefits schools, but it also drives up tuition for their customers. Likewise, farm subsidies inflate land prices, benefitting landlords instead of tenants. They contribute to agricultural surpluses, restrict choices for consumers, and even cause environmental damage. Subsidized crop insurance, for example, incentivizes farmers to grow crops in ecologically vulnerable regions, increasing soil erosion and carbon emissions. Such government policies also discourage farmers from taking steps to adapt to potentially harmful, long-term climate changes.
Finally, we should end the ability of federal, state, and local food fascists to mess with the meal choices in our public schools. When Michelle Obama decided it was her responsibility to plan the meals for all Gen-Z kids, she did nothing original. Two centuries ago, Tocqueville lamented the rise of “the idea that the State must not only direct society, but must be . . . the master of every man . . . that for fear of letting man fail, the State must always… guide him, protect him, sustain him, restrain him.” Perhaps 2025 will see the government put back into its Constitutional straitjacket.
About the Authors
This piece was co-authored by the following Northwood University students: Elizabeth Henson of Blanchard, Michigan, Chloe Herron, of Warren, Michigan, Peyton Loriaux, of Holly, Michigan, Emily Snow of Breckenridge, Michigan, and Dane Wildrom of Portland, Michigan, and Northwood alumna Kristin Tokarev, who currently works for John Stossel, a high-profile American libertarian television presenter, author and pundit. It appeared in the January 2025 edition of When Free to Choose, Northwood’s signature publication dedicated to promoting free enterprise. Subscribe for free here.