Blagnet.net

Unintended consequences in agriculture

Jack Hedin, a farmer from Minnesota, tells his story of how the United States Department of Agriculture prevents local growers from expanding to more than just farmers’ markets. This is the result of coercive policies whose stated goal is to promote agriculture and help farmers. Since it must necessarily be coercive, as all State actions are by definition, and coercion disturbs the natural order of interpersonal relations and transactions, which is peace, cooperation, and mutual benefit, economic disruptions result. These economic disruptions are always unintended by elected and unelected criminals, always predicted/predictable by free-marketeers, and almost always end up producing the exact opposite result from that which was intended.

Hat tip: Tim Swanson of the Mises blag.