Guest Column: The McQuestion

by Kyra Williams of UM Farm to College | March 15, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

The golden arches of McDonald’s are iconic in the American food system. The neon signs of fast food chains light up the strip in about every town in the U.S. We love our fast food in America. It tastes good, it fills us up, it’s convenient, and it’s all at the right price. You can scrabble together enough change in your couch cushions to buy a full meal. Have you ever wondered how it’s possible that you can buy a double bacon cheeseburger at McDonald’s for a dollar, but not a head of lettuce at the grocery store? It makes good economic sense that people with limited money to spend on food would buy the cheapest calories. In America, these cheap calories are also the unhealthiest. So in turn, it also makes sense that there is a correlation between one’s socioeconomic background and obesity. However, this cheap food is not really cheap. The hidden costs come at the expense of social capital. This “McQuation” is creating a national health disparity between the wealthy and poor and our tax dollars are supporting the system in two ways.

The fast food dollar menu may seem like a deal, but we’re enabling it upfront through federal subsidies on commodity crops. Our tax dollars are paying farmers to produce lots of cheap corn that makes up a majority of fast food. That fast food that we eat regularly, in turn, makes us fat, which makes us more prone to disease. As unhealthy citizens we need care, which at the moment is also partially subsidized in the form of Medicare and Medicaid with our tax dollars. Does that $1 cheeseburger still look like a deal?

Americans have always wanted cheap food and in 1972 the government saw a solution to the staggering rate of food inflation. The then-secretary of the USDA, Earl Butz, encouraged subsidized overproduction, changing the agricultural landscape and enabling a food system based on cheap corn. He threatened farmers to “get big or get out.” This resulted in mountains of cheap corn and other commodity crops subsidized by taxpayers. Food scientists then took these cheap commodity crops into the lab to find new ways to utilize them. Over the years, they’ve gotten more creative with their applications, and more generous with the portions.

Eating these heaping portions of “edible food-like substances,” our pants are becoming snugger and we’re becoming deathly fat. The National Institute on Aging reported in 2005 that our generation’s life expectancy could be the first in the modern era to not surpass our parents if we don’t do anything to curb the rate of obesity. Also, one-third of children born after 2000 will be afflicted by obesity in their lifetime and that number is one in two in minority populations.

Some may argue that people are choosing to eat this way, but the sad reality is that not everyone is. A single mom with three kids who works three jobs to support her family is not going to have the money, time, or energy to fix meals. As a result, her option is usually fast food that makes her family unhealthy and sick. For low-income families health care is paid for through Medicaid (tax dollars). Michael Pollan, the author of numerous bestselling books on the American food culture, stated in an article back in September, “To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.” Our health care system is currently spending $147 billion to treat obesity, $116 billion to treat diabetes, and hundreds of billions more to treat cardiovascular disease and the many types of cancer that have been linked to our diet. Does this seem illogical to anyone else, or rather unjust?

Everyone can take part in changing the system at hand. Americans would never stand for the government telling them what they can and cannot eat; therefore, we must empower ourselves as consumers. Michael Pollan has coined the expression, “vote with your fork.” By buying organic carrots as opposed to conventional, you are telling that company that organic is important to you and it’s in their interest to stock organic products. Tell your legislators that our taxpayer money should allow everyone to eat healthfully, not just those who can afford it, by reforming agricultural subsidies and food labeling standards. The food industry knows the harm it is doing to our citizens, but they won’t change voluntarily.

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