Government is all talk when it comes to fighting obesity, columnist says

• Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and the government tells them they should eat better.
• Rather that focusing on the producers of good-for-you fruits and vegetables --- half its subsidies go to grain farmers, whose crops feed animals for meat, milk and eggs and become cheap ingredients in processed food.
• That's clearly the problem, if you look at the outcome in today's society," said Andy Fischer, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, a Venice, Calif., advocacy group.
• Since two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, it's clear people are getting the calories they need and more.
• The Agriculture Department published in April its revised food pyramid, which tells people how, what and how much to eat, with the aim of improving people's health.
• It recommends fewer calories and more fruit, vegetables, low-fat milk and whole grains.
• It tells people to avoid foods made with partially hydrogenated oils and sweeteners.
• Subsidies encourage an abundant supply of corn, wheat, rice and soybeans.
• For example, toaster pastries contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil for that flaky texture and high-fructose corn syrup for a sweeter fruit filling.
• That translates to lots of calories, lots of artery-clogging fat and little or no healthful fiber.
• As those foods, commonly called "junk food" in the United States, become progressively cheaper, the prices of fruit and vegetables rise, said Adam Drewnowski, professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington.
• Many groups are pushing to link farm programs, which are due for an overhaul in 2007, more closely to government nutrition goals.
• "Here we are as a society, talking constantly about obesity and diets, and yet our farm policies are not structured to encourage the kind of diet that the food pyramid suggests we should adopt," said Ralph Grossi, president of American Farmland Trust, a group that advocates conservation on the farm.