Last week, we heard a former U.S. ambassador describe Russia’s escalating conflict with the U.S. Today, we revisit a 2019 episode about an overlooked front in the Cold War — a “farms race” that, decades later, still influences what Americans eat. SOURCES:Anne Effland, former Senior Economist for the Office of Chief Economist in the U.S.D.A.Shane Hamilton, historian at the University of York.Peter Timmer, economist and former professor at Harvard University.Audra Wolfe, writer, editor, and historian. RESOURCES:Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science, by Audra Wolfe (2018).Supermarket USA: Food and Power in The Cold War Farms Race, by Shane Hamilton (2018).“Association of Higher Consumption of Foods Derived From Subsidized Commodities With Adverse Cardiometabolic Risk Among US Adults,” by Karen R. Siegel, Kai McKeever Bullard, K. M. Narayan, et al. (JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016).The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War, by Robert J. Gordon (2016).“How the Mechanical Tomato Harvester Prompted the Food Movement,” by Ildi Carlisle-Cummins (UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences Newsletter, 2015). EXTRAS:"Is the U.S. Sleeping on Threats from Russia and China?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024).
Full Episode
Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner with a bonus episode of Freakonomics Radio. Our most recent regular episode was an interview with John Sullivan, former U.S. ambassador to Russia. We didn't really talk about the Cold War, but as a result of that conversation, I've been thinking a lot about the Cold War.
And that got me thinking about an episode we made some years ago called How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War. So I went back and listened to it. I really liked it, if I do say so myself. And I thought you might like to hear it again, too. So here it is. We have updated facts and figures as necessary. As always, thanks for listening.
When you think about propaganda campaigns, I am guessing you don't think of this. and the U.S.S.R., It featured a space race, an arms race, and a farms race.
Things like chicken breeding and hybrid corn took a outsized and somewhat surprising role in U.S. propaganda in the early 1950s. The farms race had an obvious winner.
We clearly won the abundance war. But the American victory was, to some degree, a Pyrrhic victory, whose after-effects are still being felt.
Economists who don't do U.S. agricultural policy are horrified by what they see in terms of distorting markets.
Today on Freakonomics Radio, how a sprawling system of agriculture technology, economic policy, and political will came to life in the supermarket.
Tell me, who could possibly afford to buy food in a place such as this? This is just an ordinary food market. Competition and big volume keep prices down. Utterly impossible.
This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything with your host, Stephen Dubner.
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