The problem with this simplistic view of "people choose what they want to eat" is the fact that because corn is the cheapest food, it is what the people with the least amount of money end up eating the most. Low income families eat at McDonald's because it's cheaper than going to the store to buy vegetables. But hey, screw them if they choose to eat unhealthy, they're have a right to spend their welfare check to feed their family of seven wherever they want to - McDonald's, Wendy's, or Burger King!
The market is not "choosing" to grow ever cheaper corn and beef. Corporations are forcing growers to supply them with the least expensive materials possible so they can induce people to purchase their processed food products at insanely low prices. Heads of cattle have a profit margin of pennies. We're talking one nickel per cow if the rancher is lucky. The only way they can get more money is to raise cattle in the worst ways possible and feed them the worst things imaginable.
We could make soda with cane sugar. But we don't, because we can make corn really really cheap! Because the government subsidizes it the most. Because agribusiness pays Congress lots of money... because McDonald's told them to.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ninetydegrees
no subject
on 2004-04-15 09:10 am (UTC)The market is not "choosing" to grow ever cheaper corn and beef. Corporations are forcing growers to supply them with the least expensive materials possible so they can induce people to purchase their processed food products at insanely low prices. Heads of cattle have a profit margin of pennies. We're talking one nickel per cow if the rancher is lucky. The only way they can get more money is to raise cattle in the worst ways possible and feed them the worst things imaginable.
We could make soda with cane sugar. But we don't, because we can make corn really really cheap! Because the government subsidizes it the most. Because agribusiness pays Congress lots of money... because McDonald's told them to.