Nice Food Pyramid. Want Fries With That?

Government subsidies go to a lot of foods not on Uncle Sam's food pyramid.

Growing grains will get you a lot of cash from Washington. But most of the grains grown in the US go to feed cows, pigs, and chickens. So in effect, the idea from the USDA is to keep feed grains cheap to keep the price of meat low.

The food pyramid pushes a diet with a lot of vegetables. But fruit and vegetable farmers get no subsidies from Washington.

But that's not all. The Agriculture Department also spends tons of money encouraging us to eat more of all kinds of stuff -- including pizzas and double-cheesburgers. These are from "check-off" programs where farmers are forced to pay into a program that turns into an ad campaign like "Got Milk?"

So we have a government spending millions on nutrition telling us what we should eat -- and the same department spending millions more telling us to eat more of what's not on the "good for you" list.

It's enough to drive a taxpayer to drink. Got milk? (Chicago Tribune)