Cochrane

Op Foodlog loopt weer eens een aardige discussie, In het kader van de Agrarfrage (Marx) citeerde Hendrik J. Kaput  de (hopelijk) bekende Willard Cochrane. Vaak moet ik dit mechanisme uitleggen, dus ik citeer het maar eens:
The farm economy has been out of adjustment, except possibly during World War II, since the early 1930's. The question is, Why? Why is there chronic excess productive capacity in farming? Why are there too many resources producing too much product at a reasonable lever of prices year in and year out?
These chronic condition grows out of four related circumstances:
(1) the high value that (American ) society places on scientific research and technological development; (2) the market organization or structure within which farmers operate; (3) the extreme inelasticity of the aggregate demand for food; and (4) the inability of resources previously committed to farm production to shift easily and readily out of farming.
Lees de klassierker, zou ik zeggen.