Subsidizing fat: How the 2012 farm bill can address America's obesity epidemic

University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Volumn 160, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 235-276

  Foster, Julie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 83355169288     PISSN: 00419907     EISSN: 19428537     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Note

References (52)

1. From 1995 to 2010 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) provided 77,123,770,222 in subsidy payments for corn, the largest of all subsidized crops. Envtl. Working Grp., The United States Summary Information, 2011 FARM SUBSIDY DATABASE, http://farm.ewg.org/region?fips=00000®name= UnitedStatesFarmSubsidySummary last visited Oct. 15, 2011). Americans spend 6.8% of their income on food-down from 29% a century ago, far less than industrialized nations such as France and Japan whose citizens spend approximately 14% of their income on food.
2. U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, STA-TISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES: 2011, at 853 tbl.1358 (2010), available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/11statab/ intlstat.pdf.
3. Adam Drewnowski & SE Specter, Poverty and Obesity: The Role of Energy Density and Energy Costs, 79 AM. J. CLINICAL NUTRITION 6, 9 (2004).
4. See HEATHER SCHOONOVER & MARK MULLER, INST. FOR AGRIC. & TRADE POLICY, FOOD WITHOUT THOUGHT: HOW THE U.S. FARM POLICY CONTRIBUTES TO OBESITY 8 (2006)
5. Eric A. Finkelstein et al., Annual Medical Spending Attributable to Obesity: Payer- and Service-Specific Estimates, 28 HEALTH AFF. w822, w828 (2009), http:// content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/5/w822.full.pdf+html?sid= 8e3da08f-804a-4e9a-bdb5-ba052755032e
6. see also B. Sherry et al., Vital Signs: State-Specific Obesity Prevalence Among Adults-United States, 2009, 59 MORBIDITY & MORTALITY WKLY REP. 951, 952 2010)
7. See Envtl. Working Grp., USDA Subsidies for Farms in United States Totaled 246,718,000,000 from 1995 Through 2009, 2011 FARM SUBSIDY DATABASE, http:// farm.ewg.org/regiondetail.php?fips=00000&summlevel=2&statename= theUnitedStates last visited Oct. 15, 2011)
8. In 2010 14.5% of American households, or 48.8 million people, were food inse-cure at some point, meaning those households were uncertain of being able to obtain enough food to meet the needs of all members. Econ. Research Serv., Food Security in the United States: Key Statistics and Graphics, USDA, http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/ foodsecurity/stats-graphs.htm (last visited Oct. 15, 2011).
9. See Samuel H. Preston, Deadweight?-The Influence of Obesity on Longevity, 352 NEW ENGL. J. MED. 1135, 1136-37 (2005)
10. Jess Aldernman et al., Application of Law to the Childhood Obesity Epidemic, 35 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 90, 92-94 (2007)
11. See, e.g., Robert Goodman, A Six-Point Defense of Farm Subsidies, EXTENSION DAILY (Oct. 8, 2004, 1:15 PM), http://www.aces.edu/department/extcomm/ npa/daily/archives/000749.php ("Far-mers receive direct benefits, but others along the way benefit indirectly through cheaper production inputs, which, in turn, contribute to lower production costs.").
12. See Samuel H. Preston, Deadweight?-The Influence of Obesity on Longevity, 352 NEW ENGL. J. MED. 1135, 1136-37 (2005)
13. Jess Aldernman et al., Application of Law to the Childhood Obesity Epidemic, 35 J.L. MED. & ETHICS 90, 92-94 (2007)
14. See, e.g., Robert Goodman, A Six-Point Defense of Farm Subsidies, EXTENSION DAILY (Oct. 8, 2004, 1:15 PM), http://www.aces.edu/department/extcomm/ npa/daily/archives/000749.php
15. R. DOUGLAS HURT, PROBLEMS OF PLENTY: THE AMERICAN FARMER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 67-68 (2002)
16. R. DOUGLAS HURT, PROBLEMS OF PLENTY: THE AMERICAN FARMER IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 67-68 (2002).
17. Nearly three-fourths of all U.S. cropland is dedicated to production of commodi-ty crops. See INST. FOR AGRIC. & TRADE POLICY, THE FARM BILL AND PUBLIC HEALTH: AN OVERVIEW 2 (2007)
18. See DARYLL E. RAY & HARWOOD D. SCHAFFER, AGRIC. POLICY ANALYSIS CTR., UNIV. OF TENN., HOW FEDERAL FARM POLICY INFLUENCES THE STRUCTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE 2-3 (2005), available at http://www.agpolicy.org/pubs/ RaystructuresessionSummary.pdf (contending that the export theory of agricultural markets has never been realized).
19. See, e.g., MARK MULLER ET AL., CONSIDERING THE CONTRIBUTION OF U.S. FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL POLICY TO THE OBESITY EPIDEMIC: OVERVIEW AND OPPORTUNITIES 21-23 (2007) (connecting the subsidization of poor-quality foods to obesity).
20. See DEMECY JOHNSON ET AL., U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., ELIMINATING FRUIT AND VEGE-TABLE PLANTING RESTRICTIONS: HOW WOULD MARKETS BE AFFECTED? 19-23 (2006)
21. Econ. Research Serv., Farm Income and Costs: 2009 Farm Sector Income Estimates, USDA, http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/ FarmIncome/ 2009incomeaccounts.htm (last visited Oct. 15, 2011). Steady increases in production expenses were also observed from 1999 through 2009
22. ECON. RESEARCH SERV., U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., FARM FINANCES FOR ALL FARMS: ALL SURVEY STATES GOVERNMENT PAYMENTS 1-2 (2011).
23. Family farmers are of particular concern because they provide the bulk of agri-cultural production. See JAMES MACDONALD ET AL., U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., GROWING FARM SIZE AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF FARM PAYMENTS 2 (2006)
24. Base crops originally included corn, wheat, cotton, rice, tobacco, and milk. Al-len H. Olson, Federal Farm Programs-Past, Present and Future-Will We Learn from Our Mistakes?, 6 GREAT PLAINES NAT. RESOURCES J. 1, 4 (2001).
25. Daryll E. Ray, Dir., Agric. Policy Analysis Ctr., Univ. of Tenn., Testimony Before the Democratic Policy Committee, 1996 Farm Bill: A Price Response Experiment 2-4 (Feb. 2, 2000), available at http:// www.agpolicy.org/pubs/fbtest0200.PDF.
26. See Reo M. Christenson, THE BRANNAN PLAN: FARM POLITICS AND POLICY 64-72 (1959)
27. UNITED STATES DEP'T OF AGRIC., MARKETING ASSISTANCE LOANS & LOAN DEFICIENCY PAYMENTS 1-2 (2008), available at www.usda.gov/documents/Marketing- Assistance-Loans-and-Loan-Deficiency-Payments.pdf.
28. see also Mary Clare Ahearn et al., How Do Decoupled Payments Affect Resource Allocations Within the Farm Sector?, AMBER WAVES, Nov. 2004, at 8, 8
29. See WAYNE D. RASMUSSEN ET AL., ECON. RESEARCH SERV., AGRIC. INFO. BULLETIN NO. 39 A SHORT HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL ADJUSTMENT 1933-75, at 2 (1976).
30. See 2009 Crop Year Is One for the Record Books, USDA Reports, USDA (Jan. 12, 2010), http://www.nass.usda.gov/Newsroom/2010/01-12-2010.asp.
31. Ruth R. Harkin & Thomas R. Harkin, "Roosevelt to Reagan" Commodity Programs and the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981, 31 DRAKE L. REV. 499, 501 (1982).
32. See, e.g., Elizabeth Campbell, Record Beef Price Gains as Corn Cost Slows Feedlot Cattle Buying, BLOOMBERG (Mar. 17, 2011, 9:00 PM), http:// www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-18/record-beef-price-gains-as-corn-cost-slows- feedlot-cattle-buying.html
33. See, e.g., Mary E. Burfisher & Jeffrey Hopkins, Farm Payments: Decoupled Payments Increase Households' Well-Being, Not Production, AMBER WAVES, Feb. 2003, at 39, 41
34. 16See Edwin Young & Dennis A. Shields, 1996 FAIR Act Frames Farm Policy for 7 Years, AGRIC. OUTLOOK, Apr. 1996, at 1, 1 ("Farmers will have much greater flexibility
35. In fact, fruit and vegetable producers are not eligible for the same disaster re-lief as farmers who grow commodity crops. ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON FOUND., THE 2012 FARM BILL: AN OPPORTUNITY TO SUPPORT FARMERS AND PROMOTE PUBLIC HEALTH 1 (2010), available at http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/20100803flag. pdf.
36. See, e.g., Shiva S. Makki et al., Decoupled Payments and Farmers' Production Decisions Under Risk, in AGRIC. ECON. REP. NO. 838, DECOUPLED PAYMENTS IN A CHANGING POLI-CY SETTING 33, 34 (Mary E. Burfisher & Jeffrey Hopkins eds., 2004) (discussing how farmers use diversification as a risk-management tool).
37. See Christopher R. Kelley, Rethinking the Equities of Federal Farm Programs, 14 N. ILL. U. L. REV. 659, 661 (1994)
38. See MICHAEL POLLAN, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD: AN EATER'S MANIFESTO 64 (2008).
39. See Gary S. Backer et al., An Empirical Analysis of Cigarette Addiction, 84 AM. ECON. REV. 396, 396 (1994)
40. See, e.g., Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Wal-Mart Takes a Healthy Turn, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 20, 2011, at B1
41. Egg McMuffin. Mark Bittman, How to Make Oatmeal . . . Wrong, N.Y. TIMES OPINIONATOR (Feb. 22, 2011, 8:30 PM), http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/ 02/22/how-to-make-oatmeal-wrong.
42. Cf. K.M. Venkat Narayan et al., Lifetime Risk for Diabetes Mellitus in the United States, 290 JAMA 1884, 1887-88 (2003)
43. See Anemona Hartocollis, Food Stamps as New Front in Soda Wars, N.Y. TIMES, Oct. 7, 2010, at A1
44. JOANNE F. GUTHRIE ET AL., ECON. RESEARCH SERV., U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., ECON. INFO. BULL. NO. 29-1, CAN FOOD STAMPS DO MORE TO IMPROVE FOOD CHOICES? 3 (2007).
45. Julie Grunlock, Federalizing Fat, NAT'L REV. ONLINE (Feb. 9, 2010, 4:00 AM), http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229099/federalizing-fat/julie- gunlock.
46. See Brian Elbel, Calorie Labeling and Food Choices: A First Look at the Effects On Low-Income People in New York City, 28 HEALTH AFF. w1110, w1117 (2009), http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/28/6/w1110.full.pdf+html
47. See Neil Gandal & Anastasia Shabelansky, Obesity and Price Sensitivity at the Supermarket, 13 F. FOR HEALTH ECON. & POL'Y no. 2, 2010, at 4, http:// www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1191&context=fhep
48. TRAVIS A. SMITH ET AL., ECON. RESEARCH SERV., U.S. DEP'T OF AGRIC., TAXING CALORIC SWEETENED BEVERAGES: POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON BE-VERAGE CONSUMPTION, CALORIE INTAKE, AND OBESITY, at iii-iv (2010).
49. Schreiner Farms, 940 P.2d at 277.
50. See Ortner, 279 N.W.2d at 278
51. See Wickard, 317 U.S. at 115
52. Steady Increases in Tobacco Taxes Promote Quitting, Discourage Smoking, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL, http://www.cdc.gov/Features/SecondhandSmoke (last visited Oct. 15, 2011).