Michelle Obama's Childhood Obesity Plan: Where It Falls Short

Michelle Obama's campaign against obesity announced yesterday is as sweeping as it is ambitious, declaring a goal of eliminating the sad and devastating issue of childhood obesity with a generation. There's just one problem.

The First Lady appears to be ignoring one of the major causes of obesity in America -- our perverse system of farm subsidies that helps to make unhealthy food incredibly cheap and accessible. It's no coincidence that the most obese parts of our country are also the poorest.

Simply put, the system is rigged against healthy foods, making them the luxury of people with extra income or those who have the time or inclination to prepare lots of meals from scratch. That's because for decades,Congress has given cash to the growers of crops that serve as the building blocks of junk food. The USDA pays farmers, mainly big agribusiness companies like Cargill and ADM (ADM), to grow large quantities of corn, soybeans and wheat, thus keeping supply high and prices low. This cheap corn is used to make high fructose corn syrup that goes into soda and a zillion other things. The cheap soybeans become oil for fried food, cookies, salad dressing and so on. Corn and soybeans are also fed to animals, helping to create the modern miracle of a $1 fast food hamburger.

Under current agricultural policy, the fruit and vegetables Michelle Obama would like kids to eat more of aren't invited to the party. In addition to being largely left out of the subsidy game, fruits and vegetables are more expensive and harder to work with because they're perishable. This is why you don't see salad bars in schools, though the United Fresh Produce Association would like to change that with its "A Salad Bar in Every School" campaign.

I don't envy the First Lady. She's walking a fine line between advocating for reform and completely pissing off every food company whose livelihood depends on the "food products with tons of fat and sugar and supersize portions" she's referring to. So it's understandable that she might not want to take on the politically charged and intractable issue of farm subsidies, especially since her husband already tried and failed to cut farm payments for agribusiness giants. But her decision not to even call out the problem is a big missed opportunity. Until our national food policy stops rewarding the production of unhealthy food it's hard to see how kids are going to stop packing on the pounds.

Photo credit: Robert Lawton,Wikimedia Commons