Since the Nixon Administration, we've had a crazy policy of subsidizing corn production. It's a bonanza for the big agricultural companies like ADM and has become a bit of a political sacred cow - big shock. Between ADM and other companies exercising their lobbying clout and the Iowa caucuses being so important in the presidential election process, it's become as American as apple pie and baseball.
The consequences are tragic. Cheap corn made corn syrup a staple in processed foods, making the least healthy food the least expensive. Corn became the feed of choice for cattle and pigs, enabling the creation of mega cattle and pig factories and the necessity for using antibiotics to keep those cows and pigs "healthy." Fast food and soft drink sales exploded. So did childhood and adult obesity. So did drug-resistant diseases.
In recent years, ethanol became a more popular alternative to or additive to gasoline, as mandated by the government. That, in term, increased demand for corn and drove the prices up, making food that depends on corn (beef, pork, etc.) more expensive.
NPR has a series on ethanol, and one installment discusses this crazy aspect of our corn subsidies - which need to end. Decades or centuries from now, historians may well look back on American corn subsidies as one of the stupidest and dangerous government policies of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Like so many other policies that need to change, this one is tough because the status quo serves the interest of big business. But it's killing us.
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