The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town

by Brian Alexander

Lobbyists for the convenience-store industry convinced legislators that requiring more fresh fruits and vegetables—and more varieties of other foods—was too burdensome. The Trump administration agriculture department agreed. So a can of ravioli in tomato sauce counted as a vegetable. The Dollar General offered the bare minimum of the even more relaxed food menu, and yet a long aisle of sugary drinks, because the drinks produced high profit margins and were also eligible for purchase with food stamps. The SNAP program paid billions of dollars a year—about $4 billion, by one estimate—to the soft drink industry, to the stores, and, by extension, to the sugar and corn syrup industries, via SNAP recipients. In other words, taxpayers were subsidizing the promotion of diabetes and obesity.