foodperson.com

OK, kids: Are these things related:

• The U.S. House passes a farm bill that keeps things pretty much the same where the big bucks are concerned, while throwing a few bones in the direction of people wanting a bill that promotes a safer and healthier diet.
• Some American companies are starting to charge fat people more for their health insurance.

I say they are related. It’s no secret that obesity has soared in this country. Yes, sedentary lifestyles are partly to blame, but so is artificially cheap and nutritionally corrupt food. The farm subsidies that we have now promote that bad food, which promotes obesity and bad health, which causes health insurance costs to rise and taxes to rise, because a large share of obese people are on Medicaid.

One argument for the status quo of farm subsidies is that we like our food cheap. Maybe so, but wouldn’t we like cheap fruits and vegetables, too? And what if there was an ongoing advertising system to promote fruits and vegetables that had anywhere near the funding that ads for chips, sweetened cereals and assorted other mostly worthless foods get? Although there was news last week that school programs didn’t help kids’ diets much, there are numerous research findings that various strategies to increase fruit and vegetable consumption do work.

How about it? Wouldn’t it be better if our elected representatives voted for what’s good for our nation’s health and pocketbooks, rather than what’s expedient? I say yes. How about you? Let your congresspeople know, because the fight isn’t over. The next act is in the Senate. Stay tuned.