Taxpayers Money Used by Indentured Politicians to Subsidize Ingredients Such as Corn Syrup in Junk Foods

By Dr. Mercola
In 2009, the U.S. federal government paid $12.3 billion to America's farmers. Even as farmers profit from increased demand, the government remains a major player in the food business.

The Atlantic has put together a list of the top nine products that the government most heavily subsidizes:

Corn 
Wheat 
Soybeans 
Rice 
Beer 
Milk 
Beef 
Peanut Butter 
Sunflower Oil

Corn, at the top of the list, raked in over $77 billion from the government between 1995 and 2010, and the subsidies have only been going up. There's a common belief that healthy food is inherently more expensive, and thus can only be for the wealthy. But in fact, healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone, if not for agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians in their pockets.

Lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses use billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the commodities that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food  -- corn, soybeans, wheat, etc. This manufactured price inequality helps junk food undersell nutritious food.


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Clorox Comes Clean: Company Discloses All Ingredients in All Products

For related articlesand more information, please visit OCA's All About Organics page.

The maker of bleach, Pine-Sol and other popular cleaning products announced Tuesday that it will disclose the specific preservatives, dyes and fragrances it uses in its cleaning, disinfecting and laundry products sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The Clorox Co. announcement builds on the ingredient communications program the corporation launched in January 2008, which disclosed the active ingredients in its natural Green Works line on a dedicated Clorox website. In 2009, Clorox also began listing the active ingredients of its more traditional products.

The new disclosures mark the first time a mainstream cleaning product manufacturer has disclosed all the ingredients used in all of its products -- about 200 items.

"This additional information about our products is a natural next step to take ... as we continue to drive transparency and industry leadership in the area of product ingredient communication," Clorox Chairman and CEO Don Knauss said in a statement.

 

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National List Not Spurring Innovation in Organic Ingredients

For related articles and more information please visit OCA's information page for All Things Organic and our Save Organic Standards campaign page.

The National List of Allowed and Prohibited Substances details non-agricultural ingredients that are allowed to be used as ingredients in foods labeled organic or made with organic ingredients, and is reviewed every five years. It includes carrageenan and agar agar (both from seaweed), animal enzymes, mined calcium sulfate, and glucono delta lactone, among others.

The original thinking behind the establishment of a National List was that it would allow a wide range of USDA certified organic foods to come to market without being restricted by scarcity of minor ingredients.

"The NOSB (National Organic Standards Board) and NOP (National Organic Program) assumed that handlers would benefit from a "market incentive" and inclusion in this section would "drive innovation" of organic alternatives," the paper's authors wrote. " The hope was that as the organic food industry grew, demand for these minor ingredients would also grow and organic options would become available."

However, this has not been the case. Even though the organic industry has greatly expanded since the implementation of the National Organic Program, only one ingredient - rice starch - has been completely removed from the National List.

"Collectively, the evidence of this study suggests that the current review and petition process is at best not supporting the development of organic alternatives and at worst may actually be an impediment," the authors wrote.

Their study examines the extent to which non-organically produced agricultural ingredients are used in organic foods, questioning whether the National List works in the way it was initially intended. The authors tapped into Mintel's Global New Products Database for 2008 and found 1,017 food and beverage launches containing organic ingredients. Of those, the researchers examined a final sample of 629 products with full ingredient information. 


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