The degree to which our country subsidizes corn is massive. As such, it should be thoroughly questioned and understood. Despite popular knowledge that corn is subsidized to a great extent, the exact implications are not often mentioned. These corn subsidies receive financial support from public funds, which excites a trend towards overproduction. I have read that corn actually is below cost, that is, it costs less to buy than to produce. As a result, corn is in pretty much everything, sometimes cleverly disguised. Even the meat we eat is corn-fed, which is not as nature intended.
While the cons of subsidized corn are a more lengthy list than I have room for here, I wish to ask more questions regarding the pros and our future. The subsidization occurred as an attempt to help poor farmers during the depression, but what use does this system have now? What will happen to corn farming and subsidization over the next decade or two? By subsidizing corn and other foods, what does the Food Mafia have to gain? What do our farmers, our nation, and the rest of the world have to lose?
I think that a big reason that we still allow subsidization to occur is because it's easy, cheap, and causes less work. In changing the system, the factories that make food would have to change how they work, farmers would have to spend more money to buy food, which would raise selling prices. More expensive raw materials would cause more expensive final products. All that being said, I think that this is definitely something that needs to be approached, and fixed, not only for our health, but for the health of future generations.
ReplyDelete