http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html?_r=1&ref=opinion
"in recent decades the adjusted for inflation price of fresh produce has increased by 40 percent while the price of soda and processed food has decreased by as much as 30 percent..."
mark bittman
mark bittman has a longish op-ed piece in the n y times today in which he argues that it is actually cheaper to cook at home than eat at macdonalds...he discusses the fast food/ industrial connection...and he goes into the lack of ready access to supermarkets that exist in poorer neighborhoods...and he discusses the fact that cooking is work most people think they don't have time to do...he counters those arguments with recipes for home-cooked meals cheaper than feeding four people off the regular menu at a fast food outlet, the fact that studies show most people live within a twenty minute trip from a supermarket and have access to vehicles, and the health benefits of cooking at home...what he leaves out ( after contradicting himself on the price of fresh produce versus fast food)is the dollar menu and the fact that when people do shop at supermarkets they are mostly buying hyper processed foods anyway...the supermarket is a fast food outlet too except its tombstone pizzas and hot pockets washed down with mountain dew...i know...until a few years ago i was right there with everyone else ( no holier than thou here please...i am not perfect in my eating..now or ever...still eat a burger now and then...chips...some ice cream...no more soda though...that is done and over) read the ingredients on a frozen dinner sometime and tell me it's not industrial food...that is more pervasive than fast food...and it is relentlessly marketed to us all...so mark you may be on the right track with the home cooked is healthy...but you missed the point that no-one cooks much any more...it's not food, it's convenience.
i threw in some photos of jerusalem artichokes to point out that moving away from processed foods isn't of necessity cheaper...if you buy them fresh foods cost more...end of debate... if you grow them be prepared for a non-stop job of work, planning and thinking...it is rewarding and satisfying to eat your own produce...and i'm willing to bet that most people who read this blog already know that
sometime I peek into the buggies at Wiseway and amazed at the quantity of soda, pizzas and other crap food people buy...and I stand in the express line with my hand basket of veggies, rice and diary items. All that sugar stuff looks too fattening!
ReplyDeletei find reading labels endlessly fascinating when i am at the supermarket buying pasta, apples, and sunflower seeds (all staples)...sugar, high fructose corn syrup, msg, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, ammonium phosphate, etc...simpler would seem to be better...but what would the shelf life be?
ReplyDelete