Unfortunately, it's not just an American phenomenon. Highly refined sugary crap with no nutrional value whatsoever seems to be cheaper and more readily available than any kind of actual food. But hey, thank god we now have coke with ADDED VITAMINS! Now we can all be healthy AND diabetic!

This story brings the new documentary movie "KING CORN" to mind. It really makes you think about how the inner workings of the government affects what we choose to eat.

In Deep Economy, Bill McKibben writes about sustainable living, and farming, and unsustainable farming, aka agribusiness.

The farm industry in the US can unfortunately be compared to the health insurance industry.

The only good news is that sooner or later fossil fuel based fertilizer is going to get really really expensive, and locally grown organic food will be less expensive than the 'food product' sold at the Wal-Mart.

I'm in favor of the bill but as a Missourian, I understand that it would seriously hurt the American farmer (and allow the overseas food markets to flourish). Gas prices has made rural residents like myself want to pack up and leave the community of my fathers.....I can only imagine what a reduction in farmer benefits would do to the South and Midwest. The only way I would see it working is to slowly phase in this plan and HEAVILY reward those farmers who decide to grow healthy and organic crops. Did this comment sound like riding the fence? Well, I am because I want this bill to pass but I'm afraid of what could happen to my neighbors.

I hope this passes and starts a landslide of subsidy slashing (re-directing). The US needs to re-prioritize for the 21st century now. Or right after Congres gets back from industry-subsidized vacations.

I have heard for a long time about so-called 'dirt farmers,' who were this terrible example of government waste, because they were being paid not to grow anything.

Recently someone told me this was because they were being paid to let their land recharge, instead of just killing the soil?

Maybe we need to spend the next few years getting a solid and consistent approach together on this bill, so that four years from now we'll have a shot at something better.

There are apparently 1 million farmers in the US, and the subsidies are massively disproportionate as to who gets them. They have also been making higher profits and have higher incomes than average.

As for hurting the farmer, you mean welfare recipient, don't you? They are receiving payments designed to get them off of subsidies and the original subsidies that were supposed to be phased out.

But they will never, ever go away, because rural states have disproportionate representation. Why do you think the so-called bio-fuels get so much promotion by the government?

It's great that we can all post our comments here - but I wonder if it really does anything? This has to change - our world and our people are going down the drain - we are what we eat right? How can we fix this? My hopes are on the new understandings of the universe with CERN and their photon smasher... kind of my last hope - because there is something so unknown about our own existence... Seems like the only hope left for this planet is something out of science fiction. Bring it on. It's high time.