I think any country should value the importance of their food producers and their food supply. I think government in many countries have forgot how important this is. Here in Canada, I sometimes think our government could care less about agriculture and they " assume" that food will always be available from a variiety of sources. Our government seems to decide policy as to how many potential voters are involved, and unfortunately, Canadian agriculture does not make up many votes. They are also fortunate in that most of Canadian agriculture is based in Western Canada where the present government is pretty safe, as they receive most of the electoral seats anyways.
The US farm bill oftentimes puts Canadian farmers at risk as we do not have similar policy here, but that does not make it wrong. In Britain and many other European countries, people in agriculture are considered the elite of society. They have a pile of government red tape and policies in their lives, and all the farmers there complain about it, but i believe they have it pretty good.
Agriculture does not make up much of the GNP of our countries as it once did, however, any government that takes it for granted is making a graveous error, in my opinion. Farming has become a very big business today, and without some kinds of safety net, it has an incredicble amount of risk involved. All of society has to accept the fact that as nation, part of this risk has to be carried by the general public through such things as government subsidized insurance etc. I would suggest many communities would look like ghost towns if these programs had not been in place after the devastating drought of 2012.
I am a big believer in a free enterprise system, however, a national food supply has to be number one when governments decide on policies./
