On the fruit and vegetable side, you’ve probably seen Michelle Obama and many others calling for increased fruit and vegetable consumption across the U.S.. The reality is if people were to consume at the level that she wants, the U.S. would have to double its acreage of agricultural land and government would also have to think very carefully about how it places agricultural subsidies to shape what farmers grow.
Straight from the horse’s mouth: Salt Crystals, Stevia, and the SunChips Bag: An Interview with PepsiCo’s Derek Yach
Yach is PepsiCo’s Senior Vice President of Global Health and Agriculture Policy. Even a corporation of PepsiCo’s magnitude is questioning food policies and people’s access to fresh food.
Also from the interview:
It’s very easy to point blame at any one or two people or institutions, but I think the real problem is the general underinvestment in agricultural research that we’ve seen since the seventies.
What has happened over these last few decades has been the growth of dependency on a subsidy structure that was created to ensure that nobody starved in America, as opposed to our current focus on how you can enhance nutrient quality and diversity in America.
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