The U.S. Food System and Government Failure

Interesting article on Time.com - Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food. Although the article is primarily about organic farming methods, the 'behind the scenes' story is one of public policy:

...The waste produced by the pig and his thousands of pen mates on the factory farm where they live goes into manure lagoons that blanket neighboring communities with air pollution and a stomach-churning stench. He's fed on American corn that was grown with the help of government subsidies and millions of tons of chemical fertilizer... And when the rains come, the excess fertilizer that coaxed so much corn from the ground will be washed into the Mississippi River and down into the Gulf of Mexico, where it will help kill fish for miles and miles around.

It seems that government failure is the culprit for the evils in the current food system, whether it be government failures through action (highly distortionary farm subsidies) or government failures through inaction (failure to correct negative externalities). I do not consider myself to be a libertarian, but when one sees government failures on such a massive scale, it is difficult not to admit that the public choice folks have a point.