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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Our Tax Dollars Subsidize Foods that make us Fat and Unhealthy
  • Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 22:07:46 -0600


Our Tax Dollars Subsidize Foods that make us Fat and Unhealthy
Wednesday, May 19, 2010 by: Tony Isaacs, citizen journalist
http://www.naturalnews.com/028817_food_subsidies.html

(NaturalNews) At the same time that our Surgeon General has declared we have
an epidemic of obesity, our government is using our tax dollars to cater to
special interests and to subsidize the very foods that are making us fat.
Thanks to lobbying, Congress chooses to subsidize foods that we're supposed
to eat less of.

Take a look at these numbers which tell how the percentage of federal food
subsidies spending is allocated:

* Meat/Dairy - 73.8 percent
* Grains - 13.2 percent
* Sugar/Oil/Starch/Alcohol - 10.7 percent
* Nuts/Legumes - 1.9 percent
* Vegetables/Fruits - 0.4 percent

Just 2.3 percent of subsidies go to nuts, legumes, fruits and vegetables
while 84.5% goes to meat, dairy, sugar, oil, starch and alcohol. Is it any
wonder that a salad often costs you more than a Big Mac?

The average 18-year-old today is 15 pounds heavier than the average 18
year-old in the late 1970s. The average woman in her 60s is 20 pounds heavier
than in the late 1970s and the average 60s man is 25 pounds heavier.

With the exceptions of cookies, unhealthful foods have gotten a lot cheaper
relative to everything else in the economy. Sodas are 33 percent cheaper than
they were in 1978. Butter is 29 percent cheaper and beer is 15 percent
cheaper.

Fish, by contrast, is 2 percent more expensive. Vegetables are 41 percent
more expensive. Fruits are 46 percent more expensive. The price of oranges
has more than doubled. In 1978 a bag of oranges cost the same as one big
bottle of soda. Today that bag costs the same as three big bottles of soda.

Of course, there are surely other reasons why unhealthful foods are cheaper
than healthful ones, but whatever the causes, healthful foods have gotten
much more expensive relative to unhealthful ones.

A University of Washington study determined that a dollar buys 1200 calories
of cookies or chips but only 250 calories of carrots. For example, a package
of Twinkies costs less than a bag of carrots. Compared to carrots Twinkies
are highly complicated. Like most processed foods, they are basically an
arrangement of carbohydrates and fats from corn, soybeans and wheat - three
of the five crops the farm bill supports to the tune of $25 billion a year.
(Rice and cotton are the others.)

For the last several decades, U.S. agricultural policy has been designed in
such a way as to promote the overproduction of these five commodities,
especially corn and soy. Soy, corn and wheat are also three of the most
genetically modified crops in existence.

How is it that a pair of synthetic cream-filled pseudo-cakes cost less than a
bag of carrots? Look no farther than the farm bill. Despite an early pledge
to cut Big Ag subsidies, Obama caved to special interests and the bill as
written provides billions of dollars in subsidies, much of which goes to huge
agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed
to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of
meat and dairy products - the same products which contribute to our growing
rates of obesity and chronic disease.

The farm bill also sets the rules for the American food system and governs
what children are fed in schools, as well as what foods assistance programs
can distribute. As currently written, the farm bill offers a lot more support
to Twinkies than carrots.

Our tax dollars are also used to purchase surplus foods like cheese, milk,
pork and beef for distribution to food assistance programs - including school
lunches. The government is not required to purchase nutritious foods.





  • [Livingontheland] Our Tax Dollars Subsidize Foods that make us Fat and Unhealthy, Tradingpost, 05/22/2010

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