Americans see farming as vital to national security, said pollster Emily Ekins on Hill.TV.
"People think of farmers as being integral to national security," said Ekins, the director of polling at the Cato Institute.
"I think part of its, what if other countries stop trading with us, and we’re overly reliant on food from those other countries. I think they’re afraid that we’re not going to be able to import the food that we need, so we need to continue to grow it from home," Ekins said in the interview.
However, Ekins said that theory does not work.
"I think that’s a very mercantilist view. It’s a flawed economic theory that we have to produce everything at home that we need, and that has been disproven," Ekins said in the interview.
"Trade is very important to economic growth for everybody at all income levels, but I think that’s part of what people think about when they think about farmers… they want to make sure that we have some food grown at home, even if it requires some subsidies," Ekins said.
On July 24, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would provide $12 billion in emergency relief to farmers.
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