A backstory

[nancylebov]

Unfortunately, a lot of people (especially Michael Pollan) see this sort of thing, and they conclude that the best solution is to subsidize veggies.

This time, for sure!

Link thanks to andrewducker.

Addendum: I'm surprised that so much more of the subsidies go to meat and dairy than to grains, since most of what I hear about is corn subsidies.

The chart may not include that the price floor for sugar acts as an indirect subsidy for corn syrup.

The food pyramid just indicates that the government policies are inconsistent-- there's been a lot of disagreement about whether it's even close to optimal nutrition.

Comments

[avram]

I don't know what went into that chart, but I suspect some of the subsidies for meat and dairy come in the form of the gov't allowing ranchers to use federal land for grazing at less than 10% of the market rate.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Also, of course, corn subsidies are meat/dairy subsidies, since beeves consume enormous amounts of corn (despite it not actually being very good for them or the meat they produce).