386. How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War

Freakonomics Radio

• Episode: 386. How the Supermarket Helped America Win the Cold War
• Website: Freakonomics Radio
• Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio
• Duration: 00:39:30
• Published: 2019-08-01 05:00

Aisle upon aisle of fresh produce, cheap meat, and sugary cereal — a delicious embodiment of free-market capitalism, right? Not quite. The supermarket was in fact the endpoint of the U.S. government’s battle for agricultural abundance against the U.S.S.R. Our farm policies were built to dominate, not necessarily to nourish — and we are still living with the consequences.