Government Mismanagement Sparks the Consumption of Unhealthy Food
A 2008 documentary film, Food Inc., has struck a great number of people with its shocking truths about the food industry, as well as government policies related to food production. According to available statistics and media coverage on the food industry, government policies have facilitated the consumption of unhealthy foods by subsidizing corn production, ignoring the price gap between fast food and healthy foods, and practicing leniency towards large food corporations.
The U.S. government has been heavily subsidizing the production of corn for decades, encouraging farmers to overproduce corn and allowing them to sell it at extremely low prices. Even cattle, which have been bred to eat grass, have now shifted to corn, since it is cheaper and more efficient in fattening the cows. However, research indicates that feeding corn to cattle results in a high occurrence of E. coli in the digestive system of the cattle, contaminating the beef produced from it (Callaway et al. 3: 852-860). USDA’s subsidies for corn have not only led to health problems related to meat, but also contributed to American’s high-caloric diet. Because of the low price of corn, many food companies use corns to produce artificial sweeteners and partially hydrogenated oils that should be avoided in a healthy diet. An author of Chicago Tribune comments on the USDA, “What it urges people to eat to remain healthy does not match what it pays farmers to grow” (Martin, 2005). His words suggest that farm subsidies provided by the USDA seem to contradict the advice of the food pyramid. And corn subsidies have skewed American’s eating habit in some other ways.
Compared to government’s heavy subsidies on crops, fruit and vegetable farmers receive no subsidies, though fruits and vegetables ought to make up the largest share of healthy diets.