From WIC to High-Fructose Corn Syrup: The Politics of the Food Economy

Image via Global Health and Human Rights

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The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, better known as WIC, is at serious risk of facing severe funding cuts for fiscal year 2026-2027, per the budget proposal released by the Trump administration in early April. If this proposed budget were to pass, the cash assistance provided to pregnant and breastfeeding women for the purchase of fruits and vegetables would fall from $52 to $13 a month, while assistance for young children would fall from $27 to $10 a month. 

This acts as a significant rollback of changes made by the Biden administration. In 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under the direction of the Biden administration, committed to reducing racial disparities in maternal health outcomes and reducing childhood hunger by providing expanded access to varied food options. These changes included expanding which foods could be bought with WIC benefits in grocery stores. In 2021, the administration also drastically increased fruit and vegetable benefits for WIC participants, which led to an increase in fruit and vegetable purchases per shopper by over $12 a month. These changes were supported by such groups as the National WIC Association, which advocates on behalf of WIC-elligible mothers and children. 

These adjustments are nothing but dangerous. They threaten access to healthy food for those most in-need of it. A preliminary San Francisco study found that an increase in fruit and vegetable vouchers during pregnancy was associated with positive improvements to both fruit and vegetable consumption and overall food security for these pregnant women. Additionally, higher fruit and vegetable voucher amounts were associated with higher intake of fruit and vegetables among young children whose parents received WIC by up to one-fourth of a cup per day. 

The administration should be ashamed of its blatant contradiction of its own nutrition recommendations. In a press release from January 7th, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is headed by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK), guided Americans to “eat vegetables and fruits throughout the day, focusing on whole forms.” RFK also urged Americans to “dramatically reduce highly processed foods.” For families who rely on WIC for access to healthy, whole foods, reductions in their cash budgets for fruit and vegetables will necessarily impact their ability to meet these nutritional guidelines.  

While food should not be political, it often is. WIC benefits are just one example of this. In agriculture, government entities change and implement subsidy programs in order to entice the votes of farmers, who themselves are often large landowners. The Iowa Caucuses, which have been running since 1972, are for example very important to the launching of any presidential campaign. They are the first primaries, and while not always a reliable indicator of who will become each parties’ final presidential nominee, they can provide crucial momentum to candidates who do well in them. As such, it should not be a surprise that Iowa’s main crop, corn, is the most heavily subsidized crop in the country, and that Iowa itself receives the second most corn subsidies of any state, with 71% of farmers collecting subsidies from the USDA. 

Of course, the reasons why such subsidies exist are more complicated than just the caucuses themselves. The history of agricultural production in the United States is also a history of recession, landownership, and scientific advancement. But, it is worth considering how the kinds of foods that Americans eat regularly are impacted by complex systems of American politics and industry. Because corn is so cheap, a product of subsidies that encourage companies to produce a lot of it, manufacturers of food and beverages have found ways to implement the use of corn syrup and high-fructose corn syrup into highly-processed products. This has allowed manufacturers to avoid high cane sugar prices, a product of protective U.S. tariffs. As such, the cheapest products on the market often contain corn-derived ingredients. 

According to one study, fruits and vegetables are considered highly elastic goods at similar levels to meat, particularly among low-income groups. This means that when the price of fruits and vegetables rises, or when relative wage levels fall, people will buy fewer fruits and vegetables. Instead, they will substitute produce purchases with the purchase of other, lower cost goods, like processed foods and sugars. This means that corn-derived product sales go up, large farming corporations grow, and healthy foods become less accessible each time the economy is squeezed. 

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This article was edited by Abigail D’Angelo.