Social Econ Blog

Click this link and scroll through the nice pictures of families and the food that they eat in a week.

As you do, look closely at the relative amounts of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and breads across different places in the world. In particular, notice how prominent these are in most places except the US. Almost all of the food in the US pictures is processed and packaged. Sad.

I find it particularly sad given that we spend billions subsidizing farms -- but we spend almost all of that supporting farmers who produce 5 commodities -- feed grains, wheat, rice, cotton, and soy. While I not familiar enough with agriculture markets to know whether or not any amount of farm subsidies are necessary -- much less what the right level of subsidy might be, I don't think it makes much sense to favor the production of high fructose corn syrup (and other processed foods) over the marvelous, fresh, local strawberries I bought at the farmer's market last Saturday.