fbjsr, You missed something in your statement “It made much more since to pay the farmers to grow the food and then send it to the parts of the world that needed it and give it to them. This would not affect local prices.”… It actually would not have made more sense to do things that way.
Consider that had farmers here grown the food and given it away, not only would worldwide prices for this food have dropped, netting other farmers even less profit (local prices) and less ability to stay in business, but this would have destroyed whatever local markets existed in those countries where the american products were sent.
fbjsr, You missed something in your statement “It made much more since to pay the farmers to grow the food and then send it to the parts of the world that needed it and give it to them. This would not affect local prices.”… It actually would not have made more sense to do things that way.
Consider that had farmers here grown the food and given it away, not only would worldwide prices for this food have dropped, netting other farmers even less profit (local prices) and less ability to stay in business, but this would have destroyed whatever local markets existed in those countries where the american products were sent.