JBeukema
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
A big reason that food products derived from corn are so pervasive in America's diet today is that for decades taxpayers have given corn growers incentives to grow as much as possible through the skewed federal farm subsidy system. The $73.8 billion lavished on corn since 1995 has helped to churn out a host of cheap and unhealthy foods -- from chips to sugary sodas to high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Hold on: Make that "corn sugar." With consumers souring on HFCS, the Corn Refiners Association has embarked on a re-branding effort, as Tom Laskawy mocked, to prop up the lagging sales of the calorie-laden sweetener that's found in nearly all cheap processed foods.
Many of the factors that contribute to the nation's broken food and farm system, like perverse subsidies for commodity grain growers, were exposed in a September 5 Denver Post article. In "Spoiled system: Eating healthier comes with a price for families," reporter Karen Auge explored the factors that make fresh fruits and vegetables costlier than highly subsidized and less healthy foods based on corn and soy:
Corn subsidies make unhealthy food choices the rational ones | Grist