Whenever crop prices fall uncomfortably low, there are always those who argue that the U.S. government should return to some sort of supply management program.To state the obvious, food is essential to human well-being. Since food is so crucial, it is also inevitably political. Because essential food is derived from multiple kinds of agricultural production, politics and agriculture are unavoidably and inseparably intertwined. The subjects of food and agriculture are broad and diverse, and the politics of food and agriculture are equally so.The history of the relationship between agriculture and politics is as old as recorded history itself. In the U.S., it goes back to earliest colonial times. The "modern history" of U.S. food and politics...