One of the reasons that Europe has agricultural tariffs for US products is the legacy of a major war sweeping through every 30 years and the demonstrated consequences of not attending to domestic food production and lack of food-security.
Unless you have an ocean port and a robust navy, then you are vulnerable to having your access to imported foodstuffs cut off. As a matter of national security, it is imperative to retain your ability to produce enough calories, protein and vitamins to sustain your population for a period of multiple years.
Agricultural production is not like software or movies where a 20X increase in the production of copies can be executed with the snap of the fingers. It might take five years...or decades...to increase production by a factor of TWO.
If "free trade" were allowed to free-flow, then grain from South and North America and from Australia would flood into Europe and the network of local, small, "economically inefficient" farmers would collapse. And that cannot be allowed to happen for the reasons stated above.
Bonus images
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| In 1940, wheat yielded approximately 2400 pounds per acre. Since 1990 it has consistently yielded over 7500 pounds per acre. |
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| Not only did the yield per acre triple, but the acreage planted doubled between 1940 and 1990. |
During WWII, Britain was capable of producing about 50% of the calories needed so sustain its population. Since 1990, Britain's increase in wheat production alone could completely supply the entire UK population with enough calories as long as fertilizer and pesticide imports were sustained.
And while that might seem like a zero-gain trade-off (fertilizer must still be imported), a single cargo-ship of urea equates to 25 ship-loads of grain. That is, only one ship needs to get through instead of 25.
Food security
Food security is an emotional issue. If tariffs go away, then Europe needs to find some other way of incentivizing and protecting the farmers who are foundational to creating resilient modes of food production.
7500 lbs per acre would be more than double the US rate. Here we grow about 50 bushels [3,000 lbs] per acre. Are you sure that 7500 lbs is correct? --ken
ReplyDeleteThe FAO estimate of 8000kg/ha converts to 7137 pounds per acre. Mitchell's estimate of 7000kg/acre converts to 6245kg/acre.
DeleteMost US wheat is grown west of the 97th meridian and yield is limited by soil moisture.
And that intensive farming requires chemicals and fossil fuels, both of which the Green lobby in the EU wants to ban outright.
ReplyDeleteOf course, in the insane world of UK Net Zero, prime agricultural land is turned over to crops, not of food, but of solar panels and windmills. Quite how we are supposed to feed ourselves is ignored on the altar of the cultists. (I suspect that none of them realise that you need farms to produce the food that they think magically appears in their supermarkets).
ReplyDeleteI think many in the cult visualize much smaller populations
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