Do we really have to subsidize junk food?

The game has become so vast that if there’s a federally-funded pro­gram to dig holes, you can be sure of find­ing another oper­a­tion some­where in the bureau­cratic labyrinth that appro­pri­ates tax dol­lars tofill holes. Are we work­ing against our­selves or sim­ply mak­ing sure every­body gets at least some pie?

Here’s a less abstract exam­ple. There’s a lot of atten­tion focused on health­care and even the First Lady has a well-publicized pro­gram to address the youth obe­sity cri­sis. Great! Let’s get this coun­try lean and healthy!

But while nutri­tion­ists and researchers advise cut­ting down on junk food in order to end the child­hood obe­sity epi­demic, fed­eral agri­cul­tural pol­icy is busily mak­ing the prob­lem worse. According to a recent study by the U.S. PIRG Education Fund, between 1995 and 2010 about $16.9 bil­lion in tax dol­lars sub­si­dized four com­mon unhealthy food addi­tives: corn syrup, high fruc­tose corn syrup, corn starch and soy oils (which are fre­quently processed into hydro­genated veg­etable oils).

Clearly, we need to shift from a cheap food, expen­sive health­care model to quality-based farm­ing and a health­ier diet (pre­ven­tive med­i­cine at its best). If we’re all on the same page about this, don’t you think our tax dol­lars should incen­tivize mov­ing in that direc­tion rather than con­tin­u­ing to sub­si­dize junk food ingredients?

The good news is that the buy­ing pub­lic has more clout than all the lob­by­ists in the Capitol. The world is chang­ing, and big-industry-con­trolled Washington con­tin­ues to oper­ate as if we were still a mass-market nation of net­work TV–view­ing con­formists. Those days are van­ish­ing at a rapid pace. Just ask any net­work TV exec or ad agency honcho.

Today’s con­sumers can research, pub­lish and con­nect at the stroke of a key. That’s free­dom, that’s choice and that’s power. If we want to stop fund­ing the per­pet­u­a­tion of our own prob­lems and rein in the run­away bureau­cracy, we can vote with our forks and speak with our wallets.

It’s our health and our money, after all.