Many Americans today are quite concerned about the quality of their food and what health effects certain foodstuffs pose. It is, therefore, a little confusing to note that the government is still ignoring healthy foods and promoting the large-scale growing of ‘junk’ food. The US government, through the current farm bill, aims to promote the growth of ‘row crops’ such as corn, wheat, and soy (Lisa, 2014). In promoting the growing of these crops, the government will continue to give incentives to farmers to grow more of them. Billions of money received from the taxpayers are spent in subsidizing crop-growing (“The Economist,” 2015). Wealthy individuals, including lawmakers, own large tracks of agricultural land. Corn has been the dominant crop in the US for centuries. Most of these wealthy farmers grow corn as well. If the crop is subsidized and promoted in the American market, the wealthy farmers get to save lots of money and earn lots of profits at the expense of taxpayers.
The bill reduces risks for the farmer while the government takes more. Farmers get to receive payments whether their harvest quality or crop prices fall or rise. The new farm bill also comes with a ‘crop insurance plan’ which are cheaper to purchase. The insurance plan reduces the risk for farmers and promotes the growing of the preferred crops (Bill, 2015). Other healthy foods such as vegetables are promoted but are not given the same preference given to corn and the likes. The government is, therefore using lots of taxpayers’ money to promote lots of junk food. The government should have given more priority to the more healthy food crops such as vegetables. This way, the overall health of Americans would have been promoted. Grain production is important, but food crops such as wheat and corn contribute greatly to conditions such as obesity.
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References
Bill Tomson. (2015). USDA to cut off farm subsidies to city slickers. Politico.com. Retrieved from: https://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/usda-city-farm-subsidies-114955
Lisa Desjardins. (2014). 5 Things the farm bill will mean for you. CNN Politics. Cnn.com. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/04/politics/farm-bill/
The Economist. (2015). Milking Tax Payers: As Crop Prices fall, farmers grow subsidies. The economist.com. Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21643191-crop-prices-fall-farmers-grow-subsidies-instead-milking-taxpayers
