Saturday, September 12, 2009
the health bill and our food industry
My husband Matt and I said jokingly the other day that the real solution to our health care problems would be to put a sin tax on Doritos. But apparently Michael Pollan thought of the same thing--and he was serious. He wrote a great piece in which he argues that forbidding insurance companies to drop people from care could be a powerful incentive to change our food subsidies. Because it would mean that for the first time since the corn revolution, there would be a powerful, monied group that had an interest in keeping people healthy. And the simplest way to do that is to improve our diet by dropping corn subsidies and decentralizing our food industry so we eat more local food. And if that were the only accomplishment of this bill, it might be worth it just for that.
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I had to answer an essay question on this topic for a government class last year. It was something like: "The US spends more on health care than any other advanced yet it ranks below other nations in key health measures. Why?" It's pretty much the diet thing - doctors can't cure a person from smoking or eating Doritos. I think a tax would be appropriate, but then you look at all the people who shop at Aldi's because that's all they can afford. Many of those cheap foods are bad for you.
Wow...I actually sort of agree with you. I mean...what is the world coming to?!?!
Of course, promoting the eating of more local food and all would involve repealing a lot of laws that are geared toward protecting the centralized food producers. For example, consider laws that forbid the selling of unpasteurized milk. The "scientific" justification is that it's dangerous. But it's only really dangerous in two cases: when it's not fresh (which means time-to-market is critical) and when the cows are sick (which means you need cows that are allowed to graze and walk about and so on).
Consider also that raw milk is healthier! Many nutrients in milk, from what I understand, are destroyed in the intense heat of the pasteurization process. Also, if you have raw milk, you can make your own butter, sour cream, etc.
But where can you find a place that is most likely to meet the requirements for safe raw milk? Local dairy farms! And where is the least likely place to meet the requirements? Giant, centralized dairy farms!
So...who benefits from laws banning the sale of raw milk?
BTW, in GA, raw milk is illegal to sell for human consumption. That means you can still get it, but it will be marked as "pet milk" or it will prominently say on the label "not for human consumption." Oddly, you can find people buying galleons of raw milk at a time. Those must be some pretty spoiled pets... ;-)
Anyway, sorry for the rant there. But I do think repealing laws that favor big, centralized food processors at the expense of local sources, and also getting rid of corn subsidies would help a lot.
Hey, anything that results in fewer laws I'm probably for. ;-)
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