Since before the Great Depression, the US government has been subsidizing crop production. It has evolved from protecting individual farmers to protecting large corporations that produce a huge surplus of corn (used in high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, dextrose, and the production of ethanol [subsidized corn is used instead of naturally cheaper cane sugar])
The country's tax dollars, then are being used to line the pockets of multimillion dollar corporations that often use farming processes that negatively affect the environment and our bodies.