Quote:
Originally Posted by lurkette
Not to open a whole other can of worms, but how much of this is related to the agricultural subsidies that keep our food artificially cheap?
|
The economics of food is a huge factor. In the U.S. in particular, you have a situation where corn is produced in vast amounts to the point where they must find various uses for it to maintain a market (HFCS, feedlots, etc.). At the same time, you have the subsidies on many foods, making them far cheaper than they seem. I read somewhere that, when all is said and done, the price of a pound of hamburger is 50% of what it would be without subsidies. That's just one example.
Here is food for thought:
Quote:
Here is what the food pyramid says should be eaten for a 2,000-calorie daily diet:
- 3 cups of fat-free or lowfat milk or cheese
- 2½ cups of vegetables
- 2 cups of fruit
- 6 ounces of grains
- 5½ ounces of meat or beans.
The plate would look quite different if it matched farm subsidies. The breakdown of the $17 billion that the Congressional Budge Office says they will cost this year includes:
- $7.3 billion for corn and other feed grains
- $3.5 billion for cotton
- $1.6 billion for soybeans
- $1.5 billion for wheat
- $1.5 billion for tobacco
- $686 million for dairy
- $626 million for rice
- $271 million for peanuts.
[data from 2005]
|
Farm subsidies not in sync with food pyramid - Fitness- msnbc.com
PCRM >> Good Medicine Magazine >> Health vs. Pork: Congress Debates the Farm Bill >> Autumn 2007
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 05-19-2010 at 05:53 AM..
|