In any case, it’s pretty well documented that our eating patterns follow crop subsidies, because what’s cheap to produce is what’s marketed to us and made available to us. IMO, pumping resources into producing animal feed instead of healthier human food is not the biggest problem engendered by massive corn subsidies. The worst effect has been that it made high fructose corn syrup one of the cheapest food ingredients around. (Another contributing factor, of course, has been sugar tariffs and quotas on domestic sugar production, which helped make corn syrup even less expensive relative to alternatives.) There is increasing evidence that high consumption of high fructose corn syrup (present in virtually every processed food–go read labels and try to avoid it) is a major contributing factor to obesity in our country. And obesity eventually brings a cascade of serious if not disabling health problems.

Of course, individuals need to take responsibility for what they eat. But when the entire grocery landscape is so contrived–when the least expensive and most accessible foods are the ones that are most likely to undermine our health–isn’t it time to calm down on beating the drum of individual responsibility, and start being smarter about how we manage our food production?

If we now have folks at both ends of the political spectrum who dislike farm subsidies that much, hopefully we’ll one day put enough pressure on politicians to make the change. But it will have to be A LOT, since farm lobbyists will do anything in their power to prevent it.

My official apologies to DTR…I overgeneralized. But am kinda glad I did…otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten a good, alternative view of things.

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I hear you about that, but giving subsidies on the local level doesn’t mean the subsidies will stop on the federal level. So if you had city or state governments paying carrot farmers, you will still have Congress paying many times more to corn farmers. In other words, you have the same essential problem.

Also keep in mind the subsidies at any level result in the kind of lobbying and political dealings that resulted in the corn subsidies in the first place. If Georgia is going to give money to farmers, you think ADM and Monsanto are going to sit by and let that money go to family farms? They will want their piece, whereever it is coming from.

Also, not sure what you mean by tangible. A government check is a government check. Whether it comes from the feds or the city makes little difference to the recipient.

To me, the bottom line is to stop the madness with the subsidies, period. Tinkering around the edges of the system only adds a bit of lipstick to the pig.

That being said, I’d agree that the issue comes down to bringing home the pork. Politicians on both sides of the isle feel it is their responsibility to bring money into their home state. I see this attitude trumping the notion of considering what is best for the country as a whole. And therein lies the root of all evil, in my mind.

http://reason.com/archives/2008/05/14/the-bipartisan-folly-of-farm-s

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ijM1lf2y5QPOMFmu46Gsq_74aWkAD9DP6L780

That’s why I laid the burden at the door of Republicans. If you have evidence that suggests otherwise, I’m eager to see it because that would mean we might be closer to a nationwide movement than I first believed.

Either way, I meant no insult. I still don’t understand either party philosophy – it seems stuck in an era I have never lived in – so I enjoy pointing out inconsistencies on both sides.