This and other resource reserves are artifacts of Depression era or WWII-era programs intended to stabilize prices or resource levels. Some of them outlived their intended lives because they continued to be generally useful to their participants.
For example, the complainant in the Raisin Reserve case is estimated to have profited to the tune of several million (cumulative) for the years in which the reserve kept prices above market rates. (This is where his "debt" to the government came from--he chose to commercially sell raisins at the above-market rates made possible by the raisin reserve rather than to the reserve as contractually obligated). He suffered no actual monetary harm--indeed, he had quite a bit of financial gain since the reserve prevented massive losses in bad/glut years, but like most psuedo-libertarians his short-term profits mattered more than long-term considerations. Expect to see him lobby for a bailout in the near future when a natural catastrophe guts his crop or a glut drops prices below sustainability.
For example, the complainant in the Raisin Reserve case is estimated to have profited to the tune of several million (cumulative) for the years in which the reserve kept prices above market rates. (This is where his "debt" to the government came from--he chose to commercially sell raisins at the above-market rates made possible by the raisin reserve rather than to the reserve as contractually obligated). He suffered no actual monetary harm--indeed, he had quite a bit of financial gain since the reserve prevented massive losses in bad/glut years, but like most psuedo-libertarians his short-term profits mattered more than long-term considerations. Expect to see him lobby for a bailout in the near future when a natural catastrophe guts his crop or a glut drops prices below sustainability.