Some nutritionists call for a tax on fast food to reduce consumption and also to help pay for the cost of the obesity and illness that fast food generates. Yet Government policy operates in the opposite direction. Their main effect is to keep the price of animal feed, sugar and fats such as rapeseed and soya oil unnaturally cheap. These are the key ingredients of fast food. Take away the subsidies and a burger, cola and fries meal priced at $2.49 would cost $7.50. Cattle feed costs in the US are lower today than they were in 1933, during severe economic depression. Low feed costs, the use of hormones and antibiotics as growth promoters, 'market deficiencyӠpayments, cheap immigrant labour, intensive rearing conditions and special tax breaks all work to keep the cost of a fast food meal extremely low and yet very profitable. No similar basket of payments exists for producers of vegetables or other nutritionally desirable foods. If a fast food meal was priced at its true cost and penalised for its health costs to society then we would see a very different picture. Meanwhile, the industry is praised as an example of popular capitalism while being heavily dependent on state support.
