The Threat of Corn Subsidies
Most people think that an illness epidemic poses the greatest threat to public health. We hear about the risks of diabetes and the increase in cases of cancer constantly. However, many do not know that the health problems we face come from a common root cause. That cause is corn subsidies. Corn subsidies have led to very cheap corn products, which eat away at the public health. Not only do corn subsidies hurt the public health, they also harm the very farm industry they were created to help. Because corn subsidies harm the public health, American farmers, as well as farmers around the world, they should be ended.
It is widely acknowledged that Obesity poses one of the greatest threats to Americans’ health. Diabetes and heart failure both directly result from unhealthy diets. While any American would probably point to fatty foods and sugary drinks as the culprit, few know that corn subsidies cause the high consumption of these foods. Artificially low food prices make high calorie foods more economical, and cheap high fructose corn syrup has largely replaced sugar as the main sweetener in our drinks. There is much more to corn subsidies than simply helping farmers succeed.
Falling food prices sound like a good thing to most people. With so much of government spending seemingly wasted, taxpayers money spent towards lowing food prices would seem to be a positive use of our money. And if subsidies led to a decrease in the price of healthy foods, they would be right. Unfortunately, they have not. For the most part, corn subsidies have only lowered the price of unhealthy foods, “unhealthy” meaning high calorie. Julie Foster, in her article “Subsidizing Fat” affirmed “Currently the least expensive food available is also the most caloric and the least nutritious: a dollar's worth of cookies or potato chips yields 1200 calories, while a dollar's worth of carrots yields only 250 calories. A savvy shopper seeking to...