President Roosevelt’s idea began as a pure, valiant initiative; help struggling farmer’s suffering from the oversupply of crops around the Great Depression by paying them not to produce. The goal was to raise the value of crops, help the farmers, and return America to the way its former prosperity. Unfortunately, laws such as these, such as the Farm Bill, have done more harm than good in recent years: the government has started footing the bill for the tons junk food that’s manufactured each year. There is no feasible explanation as to why our very own government is subsidizing obesity.
Originally, subsidies were meant to assist small farms struggling from competition and an over supply of specific types of crops, but currently a majority of the money is being unfairly funneled to large corporations. In fact, a whopping 75% of subsidies go to just 3.8% of farmers! More than half of farmers haven’t even received subsidies, published Huffington Post. Less than a quarter of farms making $10,000- 249,999 get subsidies. Most of the crops being subsidized by the government aren’t even healthy; since 1995 roughly $80 billion has been spent subsidizing corn while $20 billion has been used to subsidize soybeans. Compare those numbers to the amount being spent on subsidizing apples and vegetables- $637 million. Though the government recommends making “half of your plate fruits and vegetables”, between 1995 and 2005 a mere 0.37% of federal subsidies actually went to vegetables and fruits, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
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