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Challenging the Obesity System
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/04/12-8
by David Wallinga Monday, April 12, 2010

Last month, to great fanfare, First Lady Michelle Obama announced her Let's 
Move initiative to combat childhood obesity.

Tuesday's signing of the historic health reform bill assures that more 
children, once obese, will actually be able to get treatment for it. The bad 
news is how ineffective and expensive most obesity treatment actually is. 
America currently spends $147 billion a year on obesity-related illness.

What's been missing historically is any recognition that the biggest bang for 
our taxpayer dollars is to prevent kids from getting overweight and obese in 
the first place. And that's why the White House initiative is so important. 
It starts the process of making kids' food in schools and communities 
healthier.

But ultimately, we need to put a spotlight on the fact that our national 
obesity epidemic is but a single symptom of a more serious illness: our 
unhealthy food system.

In order to prescribe healthier food, we must rethink the entire system, from 
the farm to our children's mouths. We wrote about the need for this healthier 
food system in this month's Health Affairs, which was devoted to child 
obesity.

Researchers now link obesity with diets rich in added sugars, fats, and 
refined grains, and of course in the snacks, sweets, beverages and fast foods 
in which they are so prominent. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture 
data, in 2007 Americans' average daily calorie intake was 400 calories higher 
than in 1985, and 600 calories higher than in 1970.

Suprising to many is that the ultimate source of so many of these added 
calories in the American food supply can be traced to two crops: corn 
(sweeteners) and soybeans (fats and oils).

But it shouldn't be surprising. For the past 35 years, U.S. farm policy has 
incentivized the production of a few commodity crops (like corn and 
soybeans), and the calories that come from them.

In the early 20th century through the 1950s, production of these crops was 
seen as essential to addressing under-nutrition in the U.S., and throughout 
the world. U.S. farmers responded by dramatically increasing yields -- up to 
600 times higher now than in 1920.

At the same time, depression-era farm programs recognized that overproduction 
of these crops risked the prices for them plunging below what farmers needed 
to make a living, or rising above what consumers could afford. As a result, 
these programs managed supply of these commodities, to keep prices relatively 
stable, and to keep farmers in business and making money.

But from 1965 through 1996, these supply management programs were gradually 
dismantled. U.S. farm policy today is designed instead to encourage farmers 
to grow as much as possible of these few commodity crops, utilizing several 
different types of subsidies, crop insurance and taxpayer-supported research. 
Quite rationally, farmers have followed these policy signals, making 
significant capital investments (new combines, irrigation systems, etc.) to 
produce these crops.

As a cheap calorie policy, U.S. farm policy has been a success. Foods high in 
fats, sugars and calories, such as cooking oils, snacks, fast foods and 
sugared sodas, are some of the cheapest foods in the American diet. But for 
public health, U.S. farm policy's focus on a few commodities is outdated.

We know, for example, that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can help 
manage weight and lower risks for cancer and other chronic diseases, 
especially when they replace calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods. Yet fewer 
than one in 10 Americans meet the levels of fruits and vegetable consumption 
recommended under the latest calorie-specific, healthy eating guidelines. And 
farm policy historically has overlooked incentives for fruit and vegetable 
production.

So how do we get farm policy and public health on the same page?

As a start, the executive branch needs to pull together disparate health and 
agriculture communities around food policy. There needs to be a Healthy Foods 
Commission -- and it has to be independent. Such a commission, comprised of 
non-governmental public health, agriculture and food system experts, could 
work closely with the Administration's Task Force on Childhood Obesity to 
ensure upstream and downstream food system goals are mutually reinforcing.

Second, America's farmers have got to be key partners in this healthier food 
system. If the nation is serious about making fruits, vegetables and other 
healthy foods more accessible, policymakers need to offer at least as much 
research, financial and other support to growers of these foods as has been 
offered for decades to growers of commodity crops.

Specific policies to accomplish this might include: reinstating programs to 
manage oversupply of commodity crops and calories; support for current 
farmers transitioning from commodity to other crop production; new farmer 
recruitment, financing and training; an agriculture research agenda that 
includes a more diverse mix of crops and farming methods; and allowing 
farmers growing fruit and vegetable to participate in commodity programs of 
the farm bill.

Third, we need to raise the standards for the National School Lunch and 
Breakfast programs. These programs should be required to meet the USDA's 
healthy eating guidelines and this should be codified in the Child Nutrition 
Act, expected to be voted on soon by Congress.

Today, the quality of the calories produced by U.S. agriculture may be at 
least as important as their quantity. For us to make long-lasting progress on 
obesity, we must heal the symptom's source: an unhealthy food system. Let's 
move!
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
David Wallinga, MD, MPA, is Director of the Food and Health Program at the 
Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. He currently is 
also a William T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow in Food Systems and 
Public Health at University of Minnesota, School of Public Health.