Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
oppose, though, because it made both corn and foods derived
from livestock more expensive.
Do Farm Subsidies Cause Obesity?
It has become a common notion that obesity could be curbed
by a greater consumption of fruits and vegetables. Even if farm
subsidies cause the price of grains, meats, and processed food
to fall only slightly, perhaps eliminating them will reduce
consumption of these “bad” foods and increase fruit and veg-
etable production. Hypotheses like this have caused some to
blame farm policy for today's rise in obesity. Is it true?
Research suggests that removing farm subsidies of grains
like corn and soybeans would reduce caloric consumption, but
the average adult weight would decline by only 0.35 pounds per
person per year. Removing indirect subsidies like the import
quotas on sugar would actually increase obesity slightly by
making sugar less expensive, and if we remove all direct and
indirect farm subsidies the average adult weight would rise,
but by less than 1 pound.
Studies attempting to quantify the precise change in
weight due to an alteration in public policy requires a vast
simplification of the real world and represents more of a
thought experiment than an accurate projection, so the actual
effects of removing farm subsidies might differ from pro-
jections, but there is no compelling evidence that doing so
would have much influence on obesity. Australia has elimi-
nated its farm subsidy programs but displays the same pat-
tern of obesity as the United States, and there isn't any reason
to believe the American experience would be different.
Why Do We Have Farm Subsidies?
At this point the reader may stop to ask why we even have
these farm subsidies in the first place? Critics of US farm poli-
cies usually lament that they were initially designed to help
