stop being stupid

click the title to read the opinion from bob herbert, who says it better than i could: it's time for americans to stop being stupid. about the economy, the future, industry, jobs, wars, regulation, credit, mortgages, college tuition, globalization, government spending, debt, investment, paying now versus later, infrastructure, education, the environment, health care, and consumption.

i would add another policy area that needs overhaul, where the government can stop being stupid NOW with a great long-term payoff: the farm bill. it has a huge effect on the food that's available to us and the cost of this food.

processed food (the packaged stuff that is stripped of nutrients--sometimes added back in as chemicals!--that can sit on a grocery shelf for months and has been shipped from who-knows-where) is cheap and available everywhere because the government subsidizes it.

in other words, the u.s. government is taking our tax money and paying it to farmers to grow monocultures of wheat, corn, soybeans, spraying them with pesticides, using chemical fertilizers. it's paying for research programs at universities to come up with better ways of processing these "components" and turning them into cheap, unnutrious food with long shelf-lives.

if america is to get smarter, focusing on high quality, nutritious food (and clean water) that is available and affordable to everyone is a great place to start.

after all, how are we going to get smarter? what do you think builds the brain?