Hypocrisy In Action: The USDA Funds Unhealthful Foods But Promotes Healthy Ones

Most Americans are unknowingly falling prey to obesity-generating traps that are put into place by the United States Department of Agriculture. You see, all around us, folks are overeating potentially dangerous sugary, fatty, high-calorie, nutrient-poor, processed junk foods laden with high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil, in large part, because of Uncle Sam.

Sadly, the U.S.D.A. funds a farm bill that encourages over production and over consumption of many of the foods that it warns against. At the same time, the governmental agency is encouraging the profits of agribusiness and ignoring its own advice -- to eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

These are some of the important points made in an enlightening and much-needed editorial in the Baltimore Sun from physician and Johns Hopkins University postdoctoral fellow Scott Kahan, M.D.., founder and director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Nutrition, an organization dedicated to promoting a sensible and scientific approach to nutrition and preventive health.

Specifically, more than $20 billion yeartly -- or more than one-fifth of the USDA’s budget -- is spent on the farm bill, which mostly subsidizes corn and soybean crops, Dr. Kahan writes as this year's farm bill is up for consideration.

"Take corn," he writes, "the most highly subsidized crop, which received $9.4 billion in 2005 -- nearly as much as all other crops combined."

Dr. Kahan continues.

"Corn production has more than doubled since the 1970s, and all of this artificially cheapened corn is unloaded on the public, largely in the form of tasty but empty-calorie junk foods. Refined corn is the chief source of carbohydrates and calories in most processed foods, particularly snack foods. High-fructose corn syrup is the most widely used caloric sweetener in the United States. And corn meal is widely used as cheap animal feed to fatten factory-raised livestock." (Incidentally, my book SUGAR SHOCK! delves into the dangers of high fructose corn syrup.)

The US government also pushes soybeans -- it's the fourth-most-subsized crop. "Although soy protein is a healthful meat substitute, soybeans are more commonly used in junk foods," Dr. Kahan points out.

In fact, he observes, soybean oil "accounts for 75 percent of the fat in processed foods and is commonly hydrogenated to create trans fats, which improve shelf life but are known to cause cardiovascular disease."

At the same time, "healthful foods are grossly underfunded," Dr. Kahan rightly observes.

He then supports important facts to back up his observations about the USDA's hypocrisy.

"USDA guidelines advise that fruits and vegetables make up at least one-third of daily intake, but just 5 percent of its food funding supports the fruit and vegetable indsutries. There is virtually no funding for public education and advertising encouraging fruit and vegetable consummption. At its peak, the `Five-a-day' campaign budget was just $3 million annually -- compared with the $11 billion spent yearly in the United States for fast food and junk food advertising..."

But the new farm bill could provide a venue to change these current fat-promoting policies, Dr. Kahan writes in his Baltimore Sun editorial.

I was very happy to see such an eye-opening opinion piece. More Americans need to know about the USDA's hypocrisy, and we need to encourage our legislators to vote on behalf of us consumers, not agribusiness.

Thanks to Althea Chang for doing back-up research for this post.