Michelle Obama has been outspoken about the family’s switch to organic foods and her increasing disgust with the HFCS-laden foods she realized she was buying for her children, but as a politician allergic to pissing people off, Barack speaks much more circumspectly. He admitted to voting for the Farm Bill, a “far from perfect” piece of legislation that he nevertheless applauds for its support of food stamps, school lunches, and renewable fuels. He did note that corn ethanol “should be a transitional fuel source as we move towards more advanced cellulosic ethanol.” He also mentioned supporting local and regional food systems, community-supported farms, a national farm-to-school program, Country of Origin labeling laws, and tough fines for large factory farms that violate environmental standards. So far, so good.

To me, though, his most compelling statement was an admission of the “entrenched special interests” in Washington and his wish for a Secretary of Agriculture who “is not afraid to challenge [them].” He recognized that lobbyists play a “disproportionate role…in the legislative process” and plans to work with farm state legislators to “reduce wasteful subsidies.” Simply acknowledging that, and making a point of promising to combat it, involves bluntness of the kind I haven’t seen in the other candidates. Obviously, this is much easier to say than do.

John McCain, for his part, also thinks the current Farm Bill is too laden with subsidies, but seems mostly to oppose them because of the amount of money they involve. He is a strong supporter of ethanol (but also of sugarcane-based ethanol and switchgrass biofuel), but does not approve of subsidies for ethanol: “It’s doing just fine without them.”

He believes that health care reform includes people taking better care of themselves: one statement held that “we must teach our children about health, nutrition and exercise—vital life information.” And as far as I can tell, that pretty much caps off what he’s had to say about food.

Hopefully food, farming and the environment will become bigger topics as we head towards the general election. It’s about time.