Food Subsidy Pyramid

I just paid my yearly dues to my CSA, Full Belly Farm. Paying for food a year in advance in stunningly expensive. Doing it all at once highlights how much money we swallow every year.

Well, it only seems stunningly expensive because that check is written all at once, and, importantly, makes one aware of the cost of local, sustainable organic. I would gather that more people might like to join a CSA, but to shell out a check once a quarter or once a year is too painful an experience, and the cost per box seems out of line with going to the WINCO.

My endocrinologist informed me that low hematocrit levels (low iron) are common in type I diabetics, and that food today provides much less iron than it used to. An apple today has less iron than an apple harvested in 1846, primarily due to the industrialized processes we currently use. Full Belly Farm's practices, if I understand them correctly, should provide more per unit nutrition than from an industrial agriculture operation in central Mexico, along with a significant reduction in residual pesticides.

And, for what it's worth, eating locally reduces the burden on freeways and reduces gasoline/diesel prices, so you can drive farther and cheaper than you otherwise might. I'm such a nice guy.

In a sense, cheaper Mexican eggplant is more heavily subsidized by the taxpayer than Full Belly would ever be because the cost of trucking is not fully borne by the consumer. And following this argument comes this food subsidy pyramid:

showing how the foods that are the most heavily subsidized by our government are the foods that should be eaten most sparingly. There is no reason to wonder why this nation leads the world in preventable diseases and morbidity, when we so heavily subsidize relatively unhealthy food. There is no reason to wonder why health care costs keep going up faster than inflation, to treat such chronic diet related illnesses -- diverticulitis, gallstones, hemorrhoids, acid reflux, and...low iron.

Now. I have no idea, not one, about the origins of this pyramid, whether or not it's factual, even if it's accurate...but I have a very pronounced gut feeling that it is. Most everyone is aware that there is an American Cattlemen's Association and a National Dairy Council, but have you ever heard of the Alabama Asparagus Administration? Or the Colorado Cabbage Council? Probably not, and even if such existed they'd have virtually no lobbying power in Congress over the meat and dairy industries.

I eat 35-50 grams of fiber each day, above the 20 recommended and well above the national population's average of 10 grams. I'm forcing myself, somewhat, to eat my vegetables because I paid for them up front and I'm not about to waste them. I eat more veggies now than I ever have in my entire life, during which the first thirty five years I lived on a diet of hamburgers, pizza, fish sticks and Jimboy's tacos -- and about 5 grams of fiber a day. I still eat all that, oh yeah, but the ratio has decidedly changed.

But...Jimboy's tacos is God -- totally fantastic in my opinion; great, greasy, quick, tasty, and slathered with jalapenos. Man! And my waistline shows it. I struggle every day with food, struggle with eating right and with eating the right proportions. I am glad there are CSAs, glad there is a Full Belly Farm to keep me on the level.