johnbyronkuhner.com

A nice task for the Republican Congress looking to cut waste.  Mark Bittman says overhaul our agricultural subsidy system:

End government subsidies to processed food. We grow more corn for livestock and cars than for humans, and it’s subsidized by more than $3 billion annually; most of it is processed beyond recognition. The story is similar for other crops, including soy: 98 percent of soybean meal becomes livestock feed, while most soybean oil is used in processed foods. Meanwhile, the marketers of the junk food made from these crops receive tax write-offs for the costs of promoting their wares. Total agricultural subsidies in 2009 were around $16 billion, which would pay for a great many of the ideas that follow.

This is part of a “food manifesto” in which he attempts a realignment of government policy with advances in our understanding of food.  Many of the curiosities of the American food market – such as the fact that meat is cheap relative to vegetables, despite the fact that all the meat produced is made essentially from vegetables, or the ubiquity of corn and soy in our processed foods – may be traced directly to market distortions created by U.S. government policy.  It’s one way the tea partyists could actually make the country healthier, wealthier, and wiser, merely by cutting government spending.  On the other hand, it would mean cutting subsidies directed largely at red states.  We’ll see what happens.

The timeless iteration of these principles is by Wendell Berry; and a nice tribute to Berry by Michael Pollan is here.