By Heidi Garrett-Peltier, CPE Staff Economist You are what you
eat. And according to Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s
Dilemma, that means we’re corn. Corn has now made its way into
our diet in the form of fillers, sweeteners, oils, alcohols,
pills, and breakfast cereals, not to mention of course the
indirect path it takes through animal feed. Why should we care?
Because cheap corn has been linked to obesity, and obesity will
soon overtake tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death.
U.S. farm policy contributes to the obesity epidemic by
subsidizing corn production. According to the Environmental
Working Group of the U.S. Congress, corn subsidies in the United
States totaled $51.3 billion from 1995-2005. These billions of
dollars are collected from taxpayers and used to lower the cost
of corn production. Most of these tax-dollars-turned-subsidies
are used to support big agri-business: 70% of corn subsidies go
to the largest 10% of corn producers. Opponents of income
redistribution object to taxi