Anyone can see this is wrong, right?

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Anyone who gives thought to food politics knows that it is supremely fugged up.

* We subsidize corn to the point that no bushel grown in the US would make a profit if not for Uncle Sam's contribution.

* Through the subsidies, we urge our fellow citizens to eat processed food at the expense of fresh. 

* Even nuttier, we never intended that outcome, but the chance of changing it is all but nil, because the situation is locked in by lobbyists.

All that, and plenty more like it, is prelude to today's absurdity, pointed out near the top of front-page New York Times story by Michael Moss: Domino's is kicking butt with a new pizza product much higher in cheese content than the old one that no one liked. Dairy Management, the entity that suggested that Domino's use a lot more cheese and then devised the marketing campaign that followed, is none other than an arm of the United States Department of Agriculture.

That's part of of the core mission of the USDA, to promote sales of US agricultural produce.

But another part is "at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting,' the Times says. The Times adds, "one slice contains as much as two-thirds of a day’s maximum recommended amount of saturated fat, which has been linked to heart disease and is high in calories."

A third part, of course, is charged with being the producers' watchdog, yet another conflict of interest, but we can put that aside for impotent mockery some other time.

The Times wanted to talk to the USDA about this, and it agreed to submit only to written questions, which is an affront to you who pay their salaries. 

 

The Agriculture Department declined to make top officials available for interviews for this article, and Dairy Management would not comment. In answering written questions, the department said that dairy promotion was intended to bolster farmers and rural economies, and that its oversight left Dairy Management’s board with “significant independence” in deciding how best to support those interests.

The department acknowledged that cheese is high in saturated fat, but said that lower milk consumption had made cheese an important source of calcium.

“When eaten in moderation and with attention to portion size, cheese can fit into a low-fat, healthy diet,” the department said.

 

A true statement, but unresponsive to the situation at hand! What's moderate about exceeding the day's recommended allowance of saturated fat in two slices of pizza? And who, today, considers two slices of pizza — and nothing else — as enough food for a meal?

It's hypocrisy in service to the dairy industry, instead of in service to us.


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