Michael Pollan thinks so. He's got an op-ed in the NYT where he examines the relationship between or expensive health care and our cheap fast food.
Pollan says:
But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform. And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America's fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.
Why the disconnect? Probably because reforming the food system is politically even more difficult than reforming the health care system. At least in the health care battle, the administration can count some powerful corporate interests on its side - like the large segment of the Fortune 500 that has concluded the current system is unsustainable.
That is hardly the case when it comes to challenging agribusiness. Cheap food is going to be popular as long as the social and environmental costs of that food are charged to the future. There's lots of money to be made selling fast food and then treating the diseases that fast food causes. One of the leading products of the American food industry has become patients for the American health care industry.
He goes on to suggest ways that health care reform might align the insurance companies priorities with those of public health crusaders. Pollan says that each case of Type II diabetes prevented could save the insurers $400,000 — if they couldn't just rely on purging their rolls to keep costs down.
What do you think? Does Pollan make his case?
Big Food vs. Big Insurance [NYT]
SEE ALSO:
Truthdig/Chris Hedges: Food is Power and the Powerful are Poisoning Us
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090906_food_is_power_and_the_powerful_a...
Huffington Post/Kim Benson: Super(wo)Man Syndrom
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-bensen/superwoman-syndrome_b_316287.html
Life Hacker: Michael Pollan's 20 Food Rules to Live By
http://lifehacker.com/5378092/michael-pollans-20-food-rules-to-live-by
And of course, the documentary "King Corn"
Synopsis from Netflix: "In Aaron Woolf's thought-provoking documentary, friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis move back to America's Corn Belt to plant an acre of the nation's most-grown and most-subsidized grain and follow their crop into the U.S. food supply. What they learn about genetically modified seeds, powerful herbicides and the realities of modern farming calls into question government subsidies, the fast-food lifestyle and the quality of what we eat."
"King Corn" is available from Netflix Instant: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/King_Corn/70080822?trkid=222336&strkid=10120...
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