externalities

     The externality crowd (the politicizers, activists and interest groups who believe that agricultural producers are pushing a multitude of costs off on the globe and their community without paying for them), should take a look in the mirror.  When a small group of the population, such as those who have a true willingness to pay for things like country of origin labeling, organic food, locally produced food, carbon-neutral food, etc. gain the political clout to force the costs of these attributes on everyone (willing to pay or not), they have used the government to structuralize a huge cost externality.  Which is to say, they have forced others to pay for attributes only they demand. 

     Nicholas Kristoff, an editorial writer for the NYT has recently written an opinion piece calling on President-elect Obama to take the bold step of changing the name of the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Food. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/opinion/11kristof.html 

     The main reason behind his recommendation is to unseat the powerful agri-business lobby from controlling government policy, that among other things has favored factory farms raising as many as 5,000 hogs and that these "large operations receive, in effect, a $24 subsidy for each hog raised. We face an obesity crisis and a budget crisis, and we subsidize bacon?"

     Externalities is a concept in economics that I have written about here before but is rapidly becoming the lynchpin argument behind efforts to curb capitalism on a global scale.  It is the primary focus of the attack on modern swine production at the present time at almost every level and across almost any dimension of production (from antibiotic use to shipping products across the ocean).