The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

Just when you thought you'd heard just about everything, along comes a New York Times op-ed piece that blames the obesity and bad eating habits of the American people right on the front step of the American farmers and the farm bill.

Author of the article, Michael Pollan, a Knight professor of journalism at the University of California-Berkeley, uses the comparison of a bunch of carrots and a package of Twinkies to make his point. Noting that the farm bill, among other things, determines which crops will be subsidized, he claims that in the case of the Twinkies and the carrots, the farm bill “offers a lot more support to the cake than to the root.”

Like most processed foods, he claims, the Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats derived out of corn, soybeans and wheat - three of the five commodity crops the farm bill supports to the tune of $25 billion each year (rice and cotton are the other two).

Meanwhile, the carrot grower receives little or no farm bill support for their efforts. As a result, our food system is, as Pollan describes it, “awash in added sugars (derived from corn) and added fats (derived mainly from soy), as well as dirt-cheap meat and milk (derived from both).”

He goes on to say that the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent, while the real price of soft drinks (which he claims can also be called liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. And this example only proves his theory, according to his rationale, that the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest because those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.

The farm bill's school lunch program is also criticized because it treats our children as a human disposal for all the unhealthy calories that the farm bill has encouraged American farmers to overproduce. And the American farmer, according to Pollan, is also a large contributing factor to our immigration problem.

“By making it possible for American farmers to sell their crops abroad for considerably less than it costs to grow them, the farm bill helps determine the price of corn in Mexico and the price of cotton in Nigeria and therefore whether farmers in those places will survive or be forced off the land, to migrate to the cities - or to the United States,” he writes.

Okay, it's time to get a few facts straight. American farmers provide the cheapest, safest, most nutritious and abundant food supply in the world. And the wheat, corn, soybeans and rice they produce make countless nutritious food items.

Yes, there is a lot of corn that goes into sweeteners, and wheat flour does find its way into Twinkies, but this is what the consumer is demanding, it's not farmer or farm bill driven.

Anyone with even a little education (which supposedly Pollan has) must realize that the consumer's desire for food items has changed drastically, even in the last 20 years. They want fast, convenience foods for the dinner table, items that can be eaten on the run. And those sugary soft drinks have replaced water or milk as a meal time beverage, with parental approval, not approval by the farm bill or the corn growers.

These changes are what the consumers have endorsed with their pocket books, and the food industry has responded, since it is a consumer driven market. Let's say that againŠthe food industry is a consumer driven marketŠit is not determined by the American farmer or the farm bill.

All of this begs the questionŠis this society ever going to start accepting responsibility for their actions? Or are we going to expend more and more energy looking for someone or something to blame for our problems?

In a large majority of cases, if a person is obese, it's probably due to the fact they're eating too much, or too much of the wrong things, or they're not exercising enough. Sometimes it's a physical condition that is at the root of the obesity. The point is, it is not the fault of the farmers or the farm bill. In many cases it is personal choice.

It's time we start owning up to those choices, take responsibility for our actions, and resolve to change those things that are impacting us in a negative way. We need to forget about trying to pin the blame on others.

Should the average American be eating a more nutritious diet? Probably, but that is a decision each individual needs to make, based on concern for his/her health. And guess what? If all of a sudden there is a large demand for carrots and Twinkie sales drop off to nothing, those cream-filled golden cakes will be a thing of the past just like the Edsel cars, and fast-food carrot bars will be springing up all over the place. But please, don't place the blame for the bad eating habits on the shoulders of the American farmer and the farm bill.

And the biggest tragedy that comes out of this entire episode is the fact that once again we have someone who apparently knows nothing about agriculture spewing this rubbish to the American people. We have way too many assuming this role lately. We, as an ag industry, need to tell the correct story every chance we get!

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