Saturday, May 12 is the National Association of Letter Carriers national Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. To help reduce hunger year-round in America, let’s get government out of the food business. For example, let’s eliminate the legally-imposed floor, or mandated minimum, price for milk.

A few years ago, a Portland, Oregon K-Mart was closing and all items were being significantly discounted – except cigarettes and milk. State law prevented milk from being sold below a certain bureaucratically set price. Such laws harm the poor.

Let’s terminate all agricultural subsidies (link is in PDF), which invisibly raise the price of food through taxation. Moreover, we can eliminate quotas on the amount of land that can be used to grow crops, like peanuts, and import restrictions on crops, like peanuts. Such policies restrict competition and choice, thereby keeping prices of such goods artificially high.
 
Moreover, let’s understand the purported problem. Cascade Policy Institute president John Charles did research on hunger a few years back because Oregon was being touted as the number one state in the union for “hunger.” To understand the potential shortcomings of hunger claims and “hunger rankings,” refer to Charles’ QuickPoint commentary “Oregon’s hunger ranking: Much ado about nothing” or his report “Is Oregon Really the Hungriest State in the Nation?”

I am all for helping those in need. However, let’s do it in smart fashion and reduce the amount of need in the first place. We can do so by getting rid of counterproductive government barriers.