US Farm Subsidies and Obesity

Julian Alston and Abigail M. Okrent
Additional contact information
Abigail M. Okrent: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Chapter 7 in The Effects of Farm and Food Policy on Obesity in the United States, 2017, pp 159-201 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The idea that farm subsidies contribute significantly to obesity and that reducing these subsidies would go a long way toward solving the problem has been popular among the mainstream media and in policy circles. However, economists who have evaluated the issue have consistently found that farm subsidies have had negligible impacts on US obesity patterns. If anything, farm income support policies, including various subsidies and price supports, have made fattening food more expensive and reduced US obesity. New evidence from our updated economic simulation model reinforces that view and the conclusion that reformulation of farm subsidies would be ineffective and even counterproductive as a way of fighting US obesity.

Keywords: Farm subsidies; Farm programs; Multimarket simulation model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:psachp:978-1-137-47831-3_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137478313

DOI: 10.1057/978-1-137-47831-3_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().