'How much would a gallon of milk cost tomorrow, in Chicago, if the dairy subsidies were eliminated today?'

The readers of the Freakonomics blog conducted a Q&A with agricultural economist Daniel Sumner, and all I can say is, Where was this guy when the daughter of a sugar cane farmer bludgeoned me to tears for questioning sugar subsidies?

Q: Are there any good arguments that support farm subsidies? If so, to what extent and in what manner may they be justified?

A: No.

My longer answer is here.

I look at a dozen suggested rationales for farm programs and reject them all except the last one - which is we have farm programs because we have had them for 75 years and people are afraid of even thinking about a world without subsidies.

Read the whole thing here.

You can check out reason's farm subsidy archive here.