Food Labels Decoded Quotes

“Americans spend less on food because food in the US is cheaper, but it is alsoof poorer quality. The origin of this is the 1970s, when food costs were rising at the same time breakthrough technologies in the food industry were happening. President Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz,hijacked the country’s agricultural subsidy program (government money given to farmers during the Great Depression) and funneled it into the industrial production of corn and soy, which in turn promoted the rise of big agribusinesses and put smaller farmers out of business. The amount of corn produced has tripled, from 4 billion bushels in the1970s to 12 billion bushelstoday. When this much cheap corn is floating around, something has to be done with it—i.e., put it into every possible food product we can find, which is why corn syrup is in an innumerable amount of products.”
― Kyra Lien, Food Labels Decoded: Demystifying Nutrition and Ingredient Information on Packaged Foods. A Guide to Understanding Food Labels.