So without getting political, I'd like to post this article for your perusal. It suggests a "Fat Tax" on foods that are fattening or have no nutritional value. And while the idea of another tax may seem well... off putting, I do think it could have its merits. The US Government spends zillions (yes that is a guesstimate) on food subsidies for corn farms to produce high fructose corn syrup. I could go on a MAJOR tangent here - but basically the stuff is bad news! I will be sure to touch on that in a future post.
So if there is a fat tax, that money could go to a few places: health care to help attack the growing obesity epidemic or to organic farmers to help the reduce the cost of organic foods. It's cheap to be fat and expensive to be thin (and healthy). We need to change that.
So check out the article and post your thoughts in the comment section below. I'd love to know what you think!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/05/ruiz.obesity.tax/index.html
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I think the best move would be to try to fix the farm bill and either stop subsidizing corn/wheat/soy, or start subsidizing fruits and vegetables. Look around -- that's the state of the family farm these days -- owning a small part of a big corn/soy farm. Then we get hfcs and high omega-6 corn/soybean oil as our great benefit, but it mostly goes to export. US needs to stop worrying about feeding the world/ending hunger with wheat and sugar exports, and start worrying about sustaining a healthy population by making it beneficial, or at least neutral, for a small farmer to grow vegetables.
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