The Industrial Food System
In the early 1970’s US president Richard Nixon enacted two changes that would have striking impact on future generations: Removed the US from the gold standard. This would herald the end of sound, long term economic development, and shift the whole world into a debt based system of fiat currency. Enacted an aggressive program of farm subsidies (Nixon was also able to do this parallel to and because of change #1). This was somewhat part of the Cold War buildup, but it was also a political ploy to garner support from the conservative voting base within farming, which at that time represented a much larger percentage of the US population relative to today. Farmers were paid to produce food. In some instances, farmers were (and are) paid to NOT produce food. The Result? The US found itself with a glut of corn, soybeans, wheat, and similar commodities. Much of this food was lost to wastage. A simple solution was to create highly processed foods which have jaw-dropping shelf live