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Lead time from "demand" to production:(assumes that the personnel KNOW what they are doing) Cattle ranch: (depending on the size of the herd)but, calf to dinner: 3 years.

Oranges: seed to commercial crop: 20 years

Oil well: seismic to production:2 years.

All assuming that the infrastructure is in place, that knowledgeable people are available to run these operations.

What you do not seem to realize is that if we all go into IT or some other field which does not directly supply the basics (Food shelter--including energy), clothing, we will depend on the rest of the world for those items.

Disruption of essential shipping is one of the basic wartime strategies of an aggressor nation, effectively laying siege to the defender. We might survive an interruption in the flow of computer chips, even of 55% of our oil supply (current import levels), but not food.

History simply does not bear the assumption that the rest of the world will be happy (or able) to feed us. This has not been a problem in the past because $2.00/bushel wheat in 1950 meant more farmers than $2.00/bushel wheat means today. Agricultural production now is more efficient and cost effective than ever. Subsidies and controls are a way of maintaining that infrastructure for our security as a nation.

But to call grazing leases a subsidy is bunk, that is one of the propaganda lines used by the people who will be taking this land out of production.

I do have faith, however in basic supply and demand. When beef prices go up, the ranchers who survive will be able pay more for the leases, and you (assuming you eat meat) will pay more for beef. Pity that is going to be a 10 year cycle (the term of the leases).

Or are you going to get your meat from one of the countries with BSE in the herds?

If you live there, there will be a dollop more on your tax bill, as land that used to be used to make taxable income and generate sales of durable (and other) goods (taxable transactions) is "saved" from being productive.

"I do have faith, however in basic supply and demand. When beef prices go up, the ranchers who survive will be able pay more for the leases, and you (assuming you eat meat) will pay more for beef."

That about sums up what I've been saying. Economic theory says we should import if we don't produce efficiently, but I have faith in at least the more enterprising farmers to be able to make it in a free market. Those farmers will be able to feed the nation. The rest can stop sucking up my tax dollars.