CALPIRG Campaigns Against Subsidizing Sweeteners

The California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) has released a
September 21, 2011, report claiming that federal agricultural subsidies are
largely allocated to commodity crops such as soybeans and corn instead
of fresh produce. Titled “Apples to Twinkies: Comparing Federal Subsidies
of Fresh Produce and Junk Food,” the report alleges that, of the $260 billion
spent on agriculture between 1995 and 2010, $16.9 billion subsidized “four
common food additives—corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch,
and soy oils (which are frequently processed further into hydrogenated
vegetable oils),” while only $262 million went to apple crops, “the only
significant federal subsidy of fresh fruits or vegetables.” According to CALPIRG,
these allocations are the equivalent of giving individual taxpayers enough to
buy 19 Twinkies® each year “but less than a quarter of one Red Delicious apple
apiece.”

“This wasteful spending not only squanders taxpayer dollars: by fueling the
crisis of childhood obesity, the subsidies damage our country’s health and
increase the medical costs that will ultimately need to be paid to treat the
effects of the obesity epidemic,” opines the report, which urges U.S. agricultural
policy reform. “Taxpayers are paying for the privilege of making our
country sick . . . Subsidies to large agribusinesses are egregious enough on
their own; the fact that the subsidies go to junk food adds insult to injury.”