Chew On This
Feb. 11th, 2004 12:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mik3capFrom a recent Consumer Reports article:
"Subsidizing Fattening Foods
Between 1982 and September 2003, the consumer price of fresh fruits and vegetables increased a hefty 127 percent. But the price of fats and oils rose only 57 percent; carbonated soft drinks, 20 percent, and ground beef fattened on cheap grains, 50 percent. It's no accident that the foods that are making us obese are relatively cheap.
A key reason is that each year about $20 billion of our taxes are spent to subsidize the production of rice, soybeans, sugar, wheat, and - above all - corn. No such subsidy program exists for fruits and vegetables.
The U.S. both produces and consumes more corn than any other country. Corn is not only the chief recipient of farm aid, but also the engine behind cheap, high-calorie food in general. It's used directly in tacos and corn chips. It's also the main source of feed for the cattle and chickens whose meat supplies the fast-food industry. It becomes the corn oil that goes into fast-food deep fryers and hydrogenated fats, and it produces the high-fructose corn syrup and other corn sweeteners whose ready availability and startlingly low prices have helped fuel the rapid growth in soft-drink consumption.
Soft drinks overwhelmingly use corn syrup, not more expensive cane or beet sugar, as a sweetener. American corn syrup consumption has multiplied by 40 times in the last 20 years."
Blame obesity on corn. Stop eating those fucking tortilla chips and drinking that soda!
"Subsidizing Fattening Foods
Between 1982 and September 2003, the consumer price of fresh fruits and vegetables increased a hefty 127 percent. But the price of fats and oils rose only 57 percent; carbonated soft drinks, 20 percent, and ground beef fattened on cheap grains, 50 percent. It's no accident that the foods that are making us obese are relatively cheap.
A key reason is that each year about $20 billion of our taxes are spent to subsidize the production of rice, soybeans, sugar, wheat, and - above all - corn. No such subsidy program exists for fruits and vegetables.
The U.S. both produces and consumes more corn than any other country. Corn is not only the chief recipient of farm aid, but also the engine behind cheap, high-calorie food in general. It's used directly in tacos and corn chips. It's also the main source of feed for the cattle and chickens whose meat supplies the fast-food industry. It becomes the corn oil that goes into fast-food deep fryers and hydrogenated fats, and it produces the high-fructose corn syrup and other corn sweeteners whose ready availability and startlingly low prices have helped fuel the rapid growth in soft-drink consumption.
Soft drinks overwhelmingly use corn syrup, not more expensive cane or beet sugar, as a sweetener. American corn syrup consumption has multiplied by 40 times in the last 20 years."
Blame obesity on corn. Stop eating those fucking tortilla chips and drinking that soda!
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omfg, cr0n!
on 2004-02-10 09:58 pm (UTC)also the summary "blame obesity on corn" statement garners an obligatory "teehee" for it's silver-bullet-esque sound. teehee.
And why is cane sugar more expensive?
on 2004-02-11 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
on 2004-02-11 06:15 am (UTC)Anyway, don't blame the corn. Corn is a great crop if you're not frying it in fat, or feeding it to animals that you're later going to fry in fat. Corn's got great energy density--wonderful way to keep alive when you're subsistence farming. Blame the irrational subsidies. They're all holdovers from the Depression.
(Oh, I have hopped on your no-beef bandwagon after reading up on spongiform encephalies. The controls on the beef industry are too lax, and not enough is known about prion transmission. Maybe I'm irrational, but I *feel* safer. Now watch my iron bottom out.)
Re:
on 2004-02-11 08:56 am (UTC)In that same Consumer Reports issue, they talk a bit about beef too - even brands that are graded as "grass fed" sometimes only require 80% of the feed to be grass, and the other 20% can be whatever. "Corn fed" means 50% corn and 50% whatever. Even companies like Angus and Omaha don't have independent verification of their beef... there's just no true regulation to speak of anywhere.
Re:
on 2004-02-11 09:42 am (UTC)Re:
on 2004-02-12 06:51 pm (UTC)Actually...
on 2004-02-11 06:18 am (UTC)...we don't subsidize farmers enough.
Corn prices are so ridiculously low that farmers have to grow more just to break even but then the price drops again. You've got so much corn the only thing you can do is turn it into syrup and put it into everything.
For a long time the goverment would buy corn from farmers at a set price and use it to stock up food reserves. Often, it would up selling its excess overseas at a profit. So farmers didn't plant so much becuase they knew they'd get a decent price for stuff.
In the 60's/70's we opened a trade agreement with China and the system got shut off. Farmers were encouraged to plant to excess which they promptly did and the price of grain crashed.
Tom
The most vile sin is "The Lunchables Craze"
"Although children with diabetes normally are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, there has been an increase in the number of Type 2 diabetes cases reported in children in the past 10 years, partly because of the increase in obese children."
That's right, moms and dads! I hope the ten minutes you save in the morning by shoving a nitrate/sugar/pre-packaged lunch into your kids' schoolbags is worth the health problems you're giving them before they even have a chance to grow up. You LAZINESS and INDIFFERENCE is producing an epidemic of obese children. TAKE THE F*CKING TIME to feed your kids something remotely good for them! Give them a chance to grow up healthy; they might just outlive you if you do.
no subject
on 2004-02-13 04:29 am (UTC)I would eat more fruit if it wasn't so expensive.
Re:
on 2004-02-13 05:10 am (UTC)Re:
on 2004-02-20 06:25 pm (UTC)