The book Fiat Fiat food by Matthew Lysiak was a letdown that put ideology > economics.

Here is a better argument

From Economic Policy to the Bees: How Fiat Distorted the Entire Food Chain

⸻

1. It started with money.

When fiat replaced sound money, governments gained the ability to spend without constraint. Agricultural policy followed.

Subsidies poured into corn, soy, and wheat—chosen not for health or sustainability, but for yield, exportability, and political convenience.

⸻

2. Those crops flooded the system.

Processed food companies built their empires on cheap inputs. Corn syrup replaced sugar. Soy oil replaced butter. Refined wheat became filler in everything.

Evidence: The rapid takeover of high-fructose corn syrup in the 1980s.

Outcome: Cheap calories rose. So did obesity and metabolic disease.

⸻

3. But food still got more expensive.

As real wages fell behind, more households needed two incomes. That left less time and money for home-cooked meals.

Evidence: Shrinkflation across staples like cereal and snacks.

Outcome: Families now pay more for less nutrition, often without realizing it.

⸻

4. Culture shifted with it.

As convenience replaced cooking, food traditions began to disappear. Skills like gardening, fermentation, and seasonal eating faded out.

Evidence: 60% of the North American diet is now ultra-processed.

Outcome: Chronic illness, especially in youth, became the norm—not the exception.

⸻

5. Meanwhile, farms scaled up.

Monoculture took over. Pesticide use exploded. Soil and water systems degraded. This model works on paper, but not in the long run.

Evidence: Pollinator collapse in industrial ag regions.

Outcome: Food systems lose resilience. When the bees go, we’re next.

⸻

This isn’t ideology. It’s a cascade.

Fiat economics distorted incentives. Those incentives reshaped the food system, rewired households, and hollowed out the land.