Why Junk Food Is Cheaper Than Healthy Food

In this chapter of that larger tragicomedy, lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses' specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to "choose" the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support.
Corn -- which is processed into the junk-food staple corn syrup and which feeds the livestock that produce meat -- exemplifies the scheme.

"Over the past decade, the federal government has poured more than $50 billion into the corn industry, keeping prices for the crop ... artificially low," reports Time magazine. "That's why McDonald's can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 -- a bargain."
Yes, it is a bargain, but one created by deliberate government policy that serves the corn industry titans, not by any genetic advantage that makes corn derivatives automatically more affordable for the budget-strapped commoner.
The aggregate effect of such market manipulation across the agriculture industry, notes Time, is "that a dollar [can] buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit."*

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Things like this are why it's frustrating to be a thinking person in these times.   The same people who scream socialism when the conversation is healthcare are the same people who are refusing to touch the subsides to big business.  The same people who howled and screamed about The First Lady's campaign to fight childhood obesity, support the very cause of the poor diet many people have in this nation.  The discussion in Washington right now is about budget cuts, but all they mention are programs like Medicaid and Social Security, yet when The President suggests cutting subsides for big business it's characterized as redistribution of wealth.   What's most frustrating is the issue itself is complex enough for the average person not to see the connection, but the people who are supposed to know better are on the take, so the truth is hiding in plain sight.