A reaction to the USDA's "MyPlate" concept, which replaces the failed "food pyramid" for communicating what we should eat in a simple way, that I've seen several times is that the next chore of food and nutrition advocates is to get federal agriculture subsidies to mirror federal advice for what we should eat.

As you no doubt know, the broad portrait of what Americans eat is painted by what Americans choose to subsidize: We eat tons and tons of corn, for example, (corn-fed beef, corn-fed poultry, corn-syrup-based sodas, fried-in-corn-oil fries, corn flakes, etc.) and we subsidize the growth of corn to the point where it is impossible to make a profit growing corn without the subsidy. (A breathtaking thought!)

At his NYT blog, Mark Bittman shares a graphic that maps the Obamas' garden at the White House, and then relabels the plots to reflect the crops Americans subsidize. Corn, wheat, peanuts, sorghum, tobacco, but no fruit, no vegetables.

This is dissonance of the most obvious sort: One of these conditions is obviously wrong, and it is obvious which one it is. But what are the prospects of its changing anby time soon? Though change does come, it is hard to imagine this one.