End Farm Subsidies for Ultra-Processed Foods

President-elect Donald J. Trump recently tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. The pick is controversial to say the least, given many of the claims Kennedy has made over the years. However, it’s important to be able to separate and objectively evaluate these claims—and when it comes to his views on food quality, certain aspects are backed up by recent research.

In particular, Kennedy has stated that ultra-processed food is a main driver of our nation’s obesity epidemic. Research suggests this is likely a significant factor. Ultra-processed foods have become a cornerstone of the standard American diet over the past few decades, and while everyone is entitled to indulge from time to time, almost 60 percent of our caloric intake now comes from ultra-processed food. Additionally, nearly one in five American children are considered obese, and about 70 percent of chronic health conditions relate directly to an individual’s diet.

It’s become abundantly clear that these foods are killing us—but what many Americans don’t realize is that we are funding our own decline through our nation’s backward subsidy policy for large agribusinesses.

Ultra-processed foods are often the easiest option. (Who among us hasn’t heated up a frozen meal, snacked on a bag of chips, or cruised through a fast food line lately?) But it’s their affordability that makes these foods popular. Protein, fruit, and vegetables are expensive, especially when seeking out higher quality foods. Meanwhile, the corn and soy that go into our ultra-processed foods are extremely cheap, making the end product more affordable—and sometimes even addicting.

Few Americans know that this is actually by design. The federal government props up the corn and soy industries to the tune of more than 100 billion dollars a year through the Federal Crop Insurance Program and various subsidy programs. Although corn and soy are not cornerstones of a nutritious diet, they account for about half of the federal farm subsidy outlays and a significant portion of daily caloric intake in the United States.

In a country suffering from preventable disease, this is both absurd and devastating. Americans are killing themselves with food, motivated in many cases by what’s most affordable. This quality of life should not be acceptable in America.

While it’s vital to hold food manufacturers accountable for filling their products with junk and selling them at bottom-barrel prices, the direct route to change is through federal policy. Because the federal government has created and reinforced the incentive structure for using cheap fillers, the most effective method of change is going straight to the source. To the extent that federal policy should prop up the farm industry––and there are reasonable arguments to be made that it should, in the interest of national and food security––there should be, at minimum, a shift toward subsidizing and incentivizing foods that both nourish and satiate.

These policies are deeply entrenched, some of them going back nearly 100 years. What’s more, the appetite for change on Capitol Hill is quite slim, with members of Congress expressing little interest in cutting farm programs. But with a new presidential administration keen on dismantling bureaucracy and inefficiency, the best opportunity to effect change is now.

The backward incentive structure means a majority of subsidies go to large agribusinesses already making a significant profit, which increases barriers to entry for traditional “mom-and-pop” farms. Instead of propping up farm corporations that make billions in income annually, incentive structures should encourage farmers to focus on regenerative farming, prioritize resilience and mitigation, and subsidize through the lens of nutrition. Increased innovation in farming practices would give growers of a wider variety of crops the opportunity to compete in this space, thereby benefiting nutrition as well as the environment.

Prioritizing the health of its citizens is essential for the health of the nation, and now is the time to do it.