Government Subsidizes Corn Syrup

Subsidised sweeteners, taxed steak

Chris Brandlin on what he calls backwards food policy: a federal system that subsidises corn and the sweeteners made from it, while proposals circulate to tax meat.

The underlying facts are not really in dispute. US commodity policy has supported corn production at scale for decades, high-fructose corn syrup is a downstream product of that, and the effect is to make sweetened processed food cheaper relative to whole foods than it would otherwise be. Where reasonable people differ is on how much of the population's metabolic health that explains, and what the alternative policy should be.

Most of this is federal and outside an Assembly member's reach, which he is fair about. The state-level version is what public institutions buy and serve — school meals above all.

Related: taking apart the food pyramid, eating real food, and making meat affordable.

More at public health policy.