'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.