The Center for Disease Control found more than one third of adult Americans are obese.
While most Americans know that statistic fairly well, they don’t know that Europe’s rates are increasing as well. In response to having the third-highest obesity rates in Europe, the UK decided to enact a sugar tax.
While this tax could curtail the high rates of obesity in the United States, a much better course of action would be to eliminate the sugar and corn subsidies that already exist.
By targeting the source of the problem rather than the consumers, the U.S. government can create healthier options, rather than punish people for making choices.
Since the 1960s, the U.S. has heavily subsidized the sugar industry. These subsidies control and limit how much sugar is sold and exported, and has become increasingly more complicated each decade.
A 2007 Census of Agriculture found that 4,714 farmers received the subsidies to the tune of $740,000 each.
For a while, these farmers lobbied that without subsidies they would not be able to compete internationally. This does not seem to be true.
A study by the Department of Agriculture found by eliminating sugar subsidies, the U.S. sugar industry would be as competitive as foreign governments.
In addition to the sugar subsides, corn subsidies also increase the high levels of junk food sold to American consumers. Corn was largely subsidized to provide feed to farmers and ranchers at cheap prices, not to feed Americans.
The majority of corn that is used as food is used to make high-fructose corn syrup, which acts as a form of added sugar and should be limited as part of a healthy diet.
Subsidies cost the U.S. consumer $4.9 billion tax dollars in the annual farm bill, and also lead to an increase in prices at the grocery store. But they actually make unhealthy food cheaper for us. Corn-based and sugar-based products are cheaper at grocery stores and are heavily used in government-funded lunches.
This ignores what the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends people should eat — a diet heavy in fruits and vegetables with some grains.
While almost every nutritionist and dietician agrees on this, there are no subsidies for fruits or vegetables, which are classified as specialty crops.
With the state of public health being so bleak, the federal government should be doing everything to make sure that Americans are given all of the choices that they need to live healthy lifestyles.
Instead of subsidizing corn and sugar, vegetable and fruit farmers should be given discounts. I am not discounting the effectiveness of a sugar tax, but instead of punishing people for picking cheap options, we should provide them with healthier cheap options.
As a free society, we have options. Now, it’s time for us to pick the healthiest ones we can.
npatwari@indiana.edu
