The house that Butts built

If Americans were asked to list who they think controls their daily lives, many people would cite God, of course. Perhaps the president, maybe a boss, parents, spouse, kids. Think about it. Who do you think wields inordinate power over your daily life? Would you consider a former US Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butts? Mr. Butts was Secretary of Agriculture under President Nixon, and was in charge of the agency that controls many aspects of our food supply. Thanks to government subsidies to agriculture created by Mr. Butts, our food system leans heavily on the side of beef and corn, not necessarily bad to eat in and of themselves. But their dominance in our food supply has had overwhelmingly negative impacts. Our abundance of corn came about after food prices rose in the 70s and President Nixon, desperate to quell an uprising, commanded his Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butts, to do something about it. Thus was created the cornfed beast known as agribusiness, and which in a period of just a few years altered the food chain unrecognizably. Corn is used in hundreds of food products, frequently in the form of high fructose corn syrup (hfcs), a proven contributor to obesity and type 2 diabetes. It is also used in the production of meat and poultry products, in the form of feed for cows, pigs, and chickens. These industries have grave consequences on both our health and the health of the planet.

It's hard to remember a time when cheap, highly-processed, and unhealthy foods didn't line shelf after shelf in the grocery store. In fact, grocery stores had to increase their square footage just to accommodate the thousands of new food products that were developed after agriculture subsidies were created. The number of products offered per store increased from about 14,000 in 1980 to over 30,000 in 2004, and store sizes have increased an average of 1000 square feet per year for the past 30 years. Our urban landscapes have also been negatively altered with the proliferation of fast food joints riding on the coattails of cheap, subsidized corn.

The planetary consequences of our corn and beef diet stem from the poisons in fertilizers and pesticides used to grow and protect the corn monoculture, and the methane and solid waste pollution from cows that pollute the air and water and contribute to global warming.*

This is the house that Butts built.

And we live in it.
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*Check out the PB&J campaign to see how simple changes in diet can help change this unsustainable chain. By pledging to eat a plant-based lunch just one day a week (preferably without hfcs or other corn products) you can have a measurable impact on the environment, and on your health. http://www.pbjcampaign.org