Peter Timmer

The fact is, they were unable to modernize Soviet agriculture with the economic structure and strategy that they were following.

It was not a technological problem. It was a management and marketing problem. There was a total divorce between what consumers wanted and what the managers of the big state farms were told to produce.

It was not a technological problem. It was a management and marketing problem. There was a total divorce between what consumers wanted and what the managers of the big state farms were told to produce.

It was not a technological problem. It was a management and marketing problem. There was a total divorce between what consumers wanted and what the managers of the big state farms were told to produce.

Oh, gosh. I mean, the shelves were empty. It was just weird. We stayed at a government hotel. And there was hardly anything to eat. You talk with the staff of the research agencies and places like that who would struggle just to come up with basic foods. They knew it could be better than that.

Oh, gosh. I mean, the shelves were empty. It was just weird. We stayed at a government hotel. And there was hardly anything to eat. You talk with the staff of the research agencies and places like that who would struggle just to come up with basic foods. They knew it could be better than that.

Oh, gosh. I mean, the shelves were empty. It was just weird. We stayed at a government hotel. And there was hardly anything to eat. You talk with the staff of the research agencies and places like that who would struggle just to come up with basic foods. They knew it could be better than that.

It was a fundamentally failed strategy for agriculture that brought down the Soviet Union. They didn't grow enough and they didn't grow the right things. And there were no price signals telling you what's expensive and what's cheap. They wasted a lot of what they were producing on the land. It never got into the supermarkets. Timur was actually in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed.

It was a fundamentally failed strategy for agriculture that brought down the Soviet Union. They didn't grow enough and they didn't grow the right things. And there were no price signals telling you what's expensive and what's cheap. They wasted a lot of what they were producing on the land. It never got into the supermarkets. Timur was actually in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed.

It was a fundamentally failed strategy for agriculture that brought down the Soviet Union. They didn't grow enough and they didn't grow the right things. And there were no price signals telling you what's expensive and what's cheap. They wasted a lot of what they were producing on the land. It never got into the supermarkets. Timur was actually in Moscow when the Soviet Union collapsed.

The neat thing is I have a passport going in stamped Soviet Union, but my passport coming out the exit stamp is Russia. People were so... optimistic about what was going to happen. They knew that American supermarkets were a miracle. They had seen it on television. That point had clearly gotten through at least to everybody that I talked to.

The neat thing is I have a passport going in stamped Soviet Union, but my passport coming out the exit stamp is Russia. People were so... optimistic about what was going to happen. They knew that American supermarkets were a miracle. They had seen it on television. That point had clearly gotten through at least to everybody that I talked to.

The neat thing is I have a passport going in stamped Soviet Union, but my passport coming out the exit stamp is Russia. People were so... optimistic about what was going to happen. They knew that American supermarkets were a miracle. They had seen it on television. That point had clearly gotten through at least to everybody that I talked to.

I mean, demand collapsed dramatically. But agricultural productivity did not. And what that meant was prices just collapsed. And so that so totally set the mind frame for U.S. agricultural policy.

I mean, demand collapsed dramatically. But agricultural productivity did not. And what that meant was prices just collapsed. And so that so totally set the mind frame for U.S. agricultural policy.

I mean, demand collapsed dramatically. But agricultural productivity did not. And what that meant was prices just collapsed. And so that so totally set the mind frame for U.S. agricultural policy.

You know, economists who don't do U.S. agricultural policy are usually horrified. by what they see in terms of distorting markets, picking, okay, corn, soybeans, wheat, you guys get big subsidies, apples, grapes, fresh fruits and vegetables, you're on your own. Dairy, Incredibly regulated both federally and at the state level. Just a mess. Just an awful mess.

You know, economists who don't do U.S. agricultural policy are usually horrified. by what they see in terms of distorting markets, picking, okay, corn, soybeans, wheat, you guys get big subsidies, apples, grapes, fresh fruits and vegetables, you're on your own. Dairy, Incredibly regulated both federally and at the state level. Just a mess. Just an awful mess.

You know, economists who don't do U.S. agricultural policy are usually horrified. by what they see in terms of distorting markets, picking, okay, corn, soybeans, wheat, you guys get big subsidies, apples, grapes, fresh fruits and vegetables, you're on your own. Dairy, Incredibly regulated both federally and at the state level. Just a mess. Just an awful mess.

High fructose corn syrup. Yep. You've got surplus corn. And you've got a demand for easy, convenient sweetener in the food sector. And that was just a perfect storm. That syrup revolutionizes food processing because instead of a powdery sweet thing, it's a liquid. And liquids are way easier to handle. in food processing.