Bill Graham, the incoming chairman of the Novant Health Rowan Medical Center Foundation, wrote an excellent column about the need to address obesity in America on Oct. 16 (“Sens. Tillis, Burr should back anti-obesity bill”).

He correctly pointed out that  68% of our population is either overweight or obese, and that obesity accounts for 21% of our national healthcare spending.

Graham advocated for the passage of House Bill 1530, the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act as a way to reduce this cost to our society.

I have another proposal: Stop subsidizing the corporate farming industry that grows sugar.   

According to Vincent H. Smith,  a professor of economics and director of the Agriculture Marketing Policy Center at Montana State University,  these subsidies cost the American taxpayer around $4 billion dollars a year or about $45 per family of four every year.

It is time for folks who want to control the federal deficit and lower healthcare costs via the free market to walk their talk and stop subsidizing things that make folks sick.

— Francis Koster

Salisbury