I do not care for the government choosing one product over another in a competing market. I like it less when the not chosen one provides my income.
Sorry, but the growers of food have been the tools of national security policy all the way back to Joseph and the Pharoahs.
That's unlikely to change, short of Free Market Utopia.
The price of aiming for that Utopia; the complete loss of national sovereignty; is far too high, in any case.
So, we'll go on being protectionists in practice, as long as we care to continue as an independent nation.
That is, unless you want American agriculture to go the way of American manufacturing...
You have made some very excellent points in this discussion.