The modern food system relies on industrial crop production practices which produce food grown specifically for high yield, ease of transport and fast growth. This farming structure has resulted in a proliferation of inexpensive, nutritionally poor foods — made predominantly from corn, wheat and soybeans — resulting in a lack of nutritional diversity in the American diet. These three crops together have become a major component of the US food supply largely due to governmental support systems that keep their costs low. Many obesity-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes are understood to be, in part, a result of over consumption of cheap, processed foods. Corn, for example, is made into high-fructose corn syrup, which is added liberally to beverages and food products, which some studies have linked to our nation’s obesity epidemic. While our reliance on staple crops has grown, modern varieties of these crops have been bred aggressively to increase overall productivity through high yield and easy transport but have not been bred for nutritional value. The important macro- and micro-nutrient content of these crops has declined, as compared to their historical cousins. Corn and soybeans also provide the carbohydrates and protein that are used to bring animals to market weight quickly and have largely replaced grass as feed for factory farmed livestock. Government assistance to commodity farmers has made these crops cheaper than other feed options, bringing the cost of low-quality and unsustainably-raised meat down and increasing its ubiquity in the grocery store. It has the added effect of ensuring that consumers will eat grains no matter what, even if ingested secondarily through meat. The nutrient content of animal products has also declined with the rise of industrialized meat production. For example, while industrial dairies produce higher yields of milk, the product tends to contain lower concentrations of protein, fat and milk components. Conventionally raised animal products such as beef have lower levels of important nutrients and are higher in LDL (the “bad”) cholesterol. Research indicates that grass-fed cows, on the other hand, produce meat and milk with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, high-quality fats and precursors for Vitamins A and E. American diets tend to contain high levels of omega-6 for every gram of omega-3, an imbalance which has been shown to increase the risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. Grass-fed, organic dairy provides a balance of fatty acids at a ratio close to one to one for omega-6 and omega-3, which is thought to be more ideal for health. Likewise, eggs from pastured hens are also found to contain less omega-6 fatty acids and more omega-3 fatty acids, as well as more Vitamin E.