If, like for most people, prices are an important factor in what foods you choose to buy, government subsidies have a significant impact on what ends up on your plate.
Walk down any aisle, and you’re likely to come across high-fructose corn syrup. This commonly used artificial sweetener owes its prevalence to government handouts to the corn industry. Generous subsidies enable the widespread use of high-fructose corn syrup, contributing to the overconsumption of sugary foods.
Time to peel back the oniony layers of the food industry according to free-market principles.
Our mission: to understand how market distortions such as food subsidies are contributing to poor health in America.
There is a more sinister reason for the overlap between junk food and cheap food. Government subsidies of the ingredients that are the hallmarks of unhealthy food are nudging Americans toward junk food and fueling the obesity epidemic.
In 1930, total government expenditure was 10% of GDP. Of that, approximately 3% was federal spending, and 7% was state and local spending. Today, government expenditure is about 40% of GDP, with 25% of that spending federal, and the remaining 15% state and local.