For years the US gov. has paid farmers to over-farm corn. Currently corn is sold cheaper than what it costs to produce it!!! This is insane. This has several unintended consequences.
We're producing way too much corn. So, we make corn sweeteners. High-fructose corn sweeteners are everywhere. They've completely replaced sugar in sodas and soft drinks. They make sweet things cheaper. We also give it to animals. Corn explains everything about the cattle industry. It explains why we have to give [cattle] antibiotics, because corn doesn't agree with their digestive system. It explains why we have this E.coli 0157 problem, because the corn acidifies their digestive system in such a way that these bacteria can survive.
And we subsidize this overproduction. We structure the subsidies to make corn very, very cheap, which encourages farmers to plant more and more to make the same amount of money. The argument is that it helps us compete internationally. The great beneficiaries are the processors that are using corn domestically. We're subsidizing obesity. We're subsidizing the food-safety problems associated with feedlot beef. It's an absolutely irrational system. The people who worry about public health don't have any control over agricultural subsidies. The USDA is not thinking about public health. The USDA is thinking about getting rid of corn. And, helping [businesses] to be able to make their products more cheaply – whether it's beef or high-fructose corn syrup. Agribusiness gives an immense amount of funding to Congress.
I don't know if democratizing beef is a good thing. The industry can always make the popular arguments, because they certainly make things cheaper. But is it really cheap? Think of the taxpayer, who's actually subsidizing every one of those burgers. All that corn requires an immense amount of fossil fuel. Corn requires more fertilizers and pesticides than other crops. It takes the equivalent of half a gallon of gasoline to grow every bushel of corn. [Almost] everything we do to protect our oil supply ... is a cost of that burger.
And then there are the health costs. It's not really good for us. Corn-fed beef has much more saturated fat. So, yeah, it's cheap, if you only look at the price tag.
Additionally, because our corn is so cheap, we can actually sell it to 3rd world countries for a fraction of what it would cost for them to grow their own corn effectively destroying their farms and making them dependent on US corn. This does not feed the world, it rather makes the world dependent on US corn. In Mexico, an estimated 1.5 million farmers have already closed their corn fields because they can not compete with low US corn prices. This has contributed to the migration of many to the US in search of jobs.
• Of 10,000 items in a typical grocery store, at least 2,500 use corn in some form during production or processing.
• Your bacon and egg breakfast, glass of milk at lunch, or hamburger for supper were all produced with US corn.
• Besides food for human and livestock consumption, corn is used in paint, paper products, cosmetics, tires, fuel, plastics, textiles, explosives, and wallboard – among other things.
• In the US, corn leads all other crops in value and volume of production – more than double that of any other crop.
• Corn is America's chief crop export, with total bushels exported exceeding total bushels used domestically for food, seed, and industrial purposes.
Comments (5)
How about we stop subsidizing for-profit industries altogether?
Agriculture used to be viewed as a critical defense industry. The idea is that if you can't feed your military then you're extremely vulnerable.
However, we do it, we need to make sure that we still produce ample food here, at home, and that we are never dependent on foreign countries for food.
That said, I'm not sure subsidizing the burning of food (ethanol) makes sense when there are better alternatives such as nuclear.
Ensuring a plentiful domestic food supply is a legitimate function of government. I am therefore not opposed to farm subsidies in general. The scandal is paying subsidies to wealthy farmers, but this excess can be easily eliminated. I would propose a new law that prohibits any farm subsidies of any sort being paid to any individual or business that owns more than 100 acres of land or that reports a pre-tax income of more than $100,000.
mlm57td
Re-read the post. Massive subsidies for corn have nothing to do with protecting domestic food supply. The rabbit hole goes way deeper than that.