Obesity, or incumbrance of flesh, is a very large problem in America today. There are many causes of this problem some of which include minimal physical activity in many Americans and the overproduction and intake of different foods.The problems of overproduction of food dates back to the 1970s. This is the time period when Richard Nixon attempted to drop the soaring prices of food anyway and as quickly as he could. Before this time, the government had a successful program implemented to help keep the prices and production of food in check. The federal government would set a target price for storable commodities. When the market price was lower than the target price, farmers were given another option. They could sell their harvest at the lower price or they could take out what was called a ônon-recourse loanö. Whatever the crop was, as long as it was storable, would be used as collateral. The crop would then be stored by the farmer until there came a time when the market improved, after which the proceeds would go towards repaying the loan. If the loan could not be paid back then the farmer could clear his debt simply by giving the crop to the government. This system worked fairly well as it controlled the problem at little cost to the government since most loans were repaid. The current subsidy system costs American taxpayers roughly $19 billion a year and does a very poor job at even attempting to control the problem. The target price for grain was lowered and the new system replaced nonrecourse loans with direct payments to farmers. The problem of high food prices was remedied, but this created a whole new one. The market was flooded with exceptionally cheap food in very large quantities. This is what allowed fast food establishments to sell large portions of food with out changing the price. This causes Americans to buy and eat more which in turn creates this obesity dilemma. Americans, as well as the government, are to blame for this issue. People should have enough sense to realize eating large amounts of unhealthy food will have ill effects. The government opened the door for obesity, and Americans welcomed the problem into their lives. If people would shut their mouths and open their eyes they would see the problem and what they should do about it. There is a better chance of people preventing this in their own lives than the government has of actually doing something productive about the situation. | 
