After lamenting the cost imposed by overeating in the West on the world’s hungry, conference-attendees at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization grappled with food shortages over a modest menu that included “puff pastries with corn and mozzarella, pasta with pumpkin and shrimp, and rolls of thinly sliced veal.” They did skip dessert–you know, in solidarity with the downtrodden. Obesity is no more likely to wane than the U.N.’s foie gras and truffle budget. Farm subsidies are a far more vulnerable target, and their evil is not limited to the starvation of the poorest people in the world. The fact is farm subsidies have probably created as much international animosity towards the United States as the War on Terror. And our supposed savior, Barack Obama, is not entitled to lecture his countrymen about rescuing our image abroad while voting in favor of legislation that doles out billions to farmers who grow crops and billions more to those who don’t. Every time Obama talks about rescuing the American brand, McCain should throw this pandering to agribusiness back in his face. Obama (like too many of his colleagues on Capitol Hill) is depriving people in Africa and poorer nations of the only livelihood they can profitably engage in, and that is one thing he must not be allowed to feel self-righteous about.
