A $10 Twinkie?

It may sound crazy, but $10 is the true cost of a Twinkie, according to anthropologist Richard Robbins. The cheap price we pay now is due to directly and indirectly subsidized transportation and sugar.  The other $9.85 in externalities that the Twinkie costs is hidden, that is, paid for by society. These hidden costs consist of the aforementioned subsidies in transportation and agriculture, environmental damage from processing and growing sugar, and the damage to our health caused from eating processed foods. Read Robbin's The Political Economy of Twinkies for more information. 

Also, check out The Apple vs. the Twinkie in the Washington Times Editorials. Twinkies are four times cheaper than apples, despite all of the value added required to process the sugar into unrecognizable goo. The author argues that agricultural subsidies, which primarily benefit megafarms, are to blame. The result: Americans' consumption of Twinkies, along with their wasteline, is growing.