Cut the Fat, Kill Farm Subsidies

Banning soda isn't going to fix the US's obesity problem, the problem is that healthy food is expensive.  And there is a reason why this is so that is not inherent to healthier choices, it's a problem related to agricultural hand outs.  The US gives massive subsidies to preferred agribusinesses, manipulating the food choices that are available and the price points we receive as consumers.

The real issue here is farm subsidies.  The editors of Scientific American have it right, the problem is money that gives preference to certain crops.  Most (62% of) farmers don't even receive subsidies.  Out of those that do, 70% of the payouts go to 10% of the recipients.  From these figures it is clear that the programs aren't helping the intended recipients, "family farms."  It's giving preferential treatment to certain types of large agribusiness that has ultimately led to the obesity problem.  Growing fruits and vegetables is clearly less expensive than meat or dairy.  But thanks to subsidies, that's all mixed up. The fruit and vegetable farmers are mostly thrown under the bus (except for corn and soybeans, I'll get to corn in a minute,) and special consideration is given to farmers of livestock.

Consumption of Sugars By Year

Corn is probably one of the most highly subsidized crops in this country because of its importance to industry as high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS.)  It is an essential part of many high calorie processed snack foods like potato chips.  Thanks to our use of processed corn as a sweetener, we pay twice what the rest of the world pays for regular table sugar.  HFCS, however, comes dirt cheap, thanks to the subsidies, ready to haywire our insulin responses, and trap us in a permanent obesity epidemic.  This is not only due to HFCS's high calorie density.  Insulin causes humans to convert glycogen in the bloodstream to fat, so it is reasonable to think that HFCS might be implicated our obesity problem due to the havoc it reeks on the system.  It is good news that it's use might be declining.

Wool is One of New Zealand Biggest Exports

New Zealand did something everyone in the developed world should have done in 1984.  They ended farm subsidies.  About time someone did it.  In the US only 0.1% of the population lives on farms, compared to 25% when farm subsidies were first put in place.  There was a purpose for it then, but I think even FDR would agree with me here, in the modern world, these handouts only go to serve a small percentage of recipients.  All American Blogger has a great write up on this.

None of the horror stories came true.  It's true that 1% of farms went under.  But overall the agribusiness survived and flourished.  Now this is pure speculation, but I am sure that they have better food choices too, since it's dictated based on what is easier to grow.  Produce is far easier and cheaper to grow than raising livestock and cattle.  I'm betting that would have had an effect on healthy food choices almost immediately.

This is probably supposed to be more about fixing obesity, but while on the subject of farm subsidies, check out this list of city slickers receiving farm subsidies from the government.