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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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)