Forbes released the top 10 best and worst paying jobs in America. Per tradition, striking irony exists in the numbers of jobs on both lists relating to America’s food industry. The highest paying jobs were related to the outcomes of food consumption while the lowest paying positions were in the food service areas. This comparison correlates to the statistics about how much America invests in health care (the after-effects) and how much we invest in food production and processing (the prevention area).
Of course, health jobs are in the top 10 highest paying jobs. Among them are pediatricians, anesthesiologists and surgeons. Obviously these all tie in to food consumption. But what I want to focus on is how much America invests in health care and why costs are rising.
People are getting sicker because of how America’s food system is structured through legalities and subsidies. The government is subsidizing the big-industry food producers that engineer food that makes the public sicker. For example, the U.S. government pays farmers more to grow corn, and this product either ends up as feed for livestock or re-arranged in a lab to produce chemicals like maltodextrin, xantham gum, modified food starch and many others that make the public sick. Because the government subsidizes these foodstuffs, the shelf prices are cheaper. This means the people with lower incomes are attracted to the foods. These are the people who are getting sicker and going to hospitals. Because they have a lower income, they often lack healthcare. That means the taxpayer is supporting more medical costs. Therefore, the health professionals are making more money because more people are entering hospitals. Many of these people are receiving diagnoses of diseases like heart disease and diabetes. These require follow-up visits and, hence, more money.
On the alternate side, many of the lowest paying jobs are in the food service. This includes hostesses, food preparation and food serving. Because the food industry endorses cheap food in high concentrations, few funds trickle to the workers. Innovations in healthy recipes and efficient preparation probably won’t come out of an exhausted employee making $7.25 an hour. The businesses obviously work to maximize their profit, which means purchasing the cheapest materials. The cheapest food is the government-subsidized food that is also the cheapest in nutrients. The lack of investment in the food system is supporting the creation of processed food that is making Americans sick. We are not devoting funds to healthy food, much less to the people growing, preparing and serving it.
The reverberation of the misappropriation of funds, energy and support within the food system appears in the form of the salaries of those working in healthcare and those working in cuisine. Bottom line: We prefer dealing with the health costs of poor food choices instead of devoting resources to prevention. If we focus on the front end, we reduce the cost of the outcome, and the outcome will require fewer federal dollars.
Environmentally, monocultures such as corn and soybeans will not be able to sustain the American diet indefinitely. Single-crop fields are most vulnerable to disturbances from the environment such as diseases or insects. This has been the reason for excessive pesticide usage that runs off into streams and make species more resistant to the same methods. Plant scientists have also introduced genetic modification to monocultures that have posed controversial issues regarding labeling and ethics. Legislation regarding the labeling of genetically-modified organisms will suck more funds into the wrong places. The government should prioritize investments in crops that are beneficial for the human population and the stabilization of the environment.
-Dixon is a sophomore Environmental Fellow from Evansville, Indiana