Today, the U.S. PIRG Education Fund released a report that has a compelling title.

It’s called “Apples to Twinkies: Comparing Federal Subsidies of Fresh Produce and Junk Food.”

The study examines agricultural tax subsidies and how corn and soy subsidies — $5 billion last year — contribute to the nation’s obesity epidemic.

And it is an epidemic.

Childhood obesity is rising rapidly and, according to the PIRG report, by 2030 half of all Americans will be obese if we don’t get a grip.

Obesity is already costing businesses in sick time and lost production, and treating $150 billion worth of obesity-related diseases every year is one of the major factors in this nation’s rising cost of health care.

We can’t blame agricultural subsidies for that.

According to PIRG, if “agricultural subsidies went directly to consumers to allow them to purchase food, each of America’s 144 million taxpayers would be given $7.36 to spend on junk food and 11 cents with which to buy apples each year.”

That, according to PIRG, is “enough to buy 19 Twinkies but less than a quarter of one red delicious apple apiece.”

Figuring Lewiston’s specific share of subsidies, PIRG estimates that for the 35,000 people living in Lewiston, they could buy 318,397 Twinkies and 3,635 apples every year.

PIRG’s point that taxpayers should not be subsidizing Twinkies is fair, but it’s just not that simple.

Taxpayers are not subsidizing Twinkies. We’re subsidizing the ingredients that go into these 150-calorie cream-filled snack cakes.

And, just because we’re subsidizing $262 million worth of apples each year doesn’t mean each piece of fruit is being consumed in the raw.

Apples are processed into strudels, pies, cakes, fritters, sugar-rich juices and thousands of other foods that could — without much of a stretch — qualify as junk food.

Dip a red delicious into a vat of caramel and you’ve got yourself a 345-calorie sugar-soaked fiber-rich treat.

Let’s take a look at Apple Jacks.

The main ingredient of this cereal is sugar, followed by three different kinds of flour (whole grain corn, wheat and whole grain oat) and two different kinds of fiber (oat and soluble corn), followed by milled corn, dried apples and apple juice concentrate, cinnamon, starches and some stuff to make the cereal colorful and keep it fresh.

Some of these ingredients, including the flour and fibers, also appear in grocery shelves in packages of whole wheat breads, fiber-rich cereals and quick-cooking oats, and are considered “health” foods.

So, subsidizing corn is not worse than subsidizing apples. It’s the amount of corn products — like high fructose corn syrup — that we consume that is the real problem.

Do we stop subsidizing grape farms because some portion of their crop may be transformed into Allen’s Coffee Brandy?

No.

Subsidies or not, Americans will still eat Twinkies.

When we stopped subsidizing tobacco farms between 2005 and 2007 it didn’t put a halt to smoking, and we’re right back to subsidizing this killer crop. Last year, according to the Environmental Working Group, taxpayers subsidized tobacco growers to the tune of $194 million.

That’s $120 million more than we spent on dairy subsidies.

Obesity is not caused by tax subsidies and cannot be cured by eliminating the same.

We have to eat fewer Twinkies in favor of more fresh apples.

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The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and editorial board.