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There appears to be a food war raging out there.
The Economist reports on the USDA concept of the "food desert": areas where low-income families have no access to healthy fresh food. A little digging reveals that, thanks to roadside greengrocers, farmers' markets, and general car-granted mobility, even most lower-income eaters have access to decent food—it's just not something they're choosing to eat. Or almost anyone is choosing to eat, actually.
Meanwhile, The Independent has a report on Vend Natural, purportedly the fastest-growing healthy vending snack company in America, with 420 machines slinging items such as apple chips, wheat and cheddar crackers, kettle corn popcorn, and all-natural granola bars. The machines are on the rise, but before you get too optimistic about their immediate impact, remember that there are millions of other vending machines in the U.S., overwhelmingly packed with life-destroying sugar water and cheap candy bars that the Europeans rightfully laugh at for their terrible flavor.
And Eater writes about a woman who may go to jail for the heinous crime of turning her front yard into a vegetable garden, a use of land found "unsuitable" by the city planner of Oak Park, Michigan. Why unsuitable? It's not grass. Never mind that producing healthy local food is thought by some (the first lady, for example) to be an urgent priority; lawns gotta be grass.
Take all these recent stories together, and you get a sense of a culture in turmoil. Our fat, self-loathing, unhealthy country is fundamentally torn. On one hand, our bodies have coached us to love fats, sweets, and charred meats, and we pride ourselves on having both freedom of choice and the wisdom to use it well.
On the other hand, if you give an animal access to healthy food that fulfills its nutritional needs and devastatingly unhealthy food that tastes extremely delicious, the animal will eat the latter and pork out every time—and we're most assuredly animals, victims of our own evolution and metabolism. Solving the problem will require some combination of iron will-power and/or tinkering with the way food is sold and distributed and/or government intervention.
In wrestling with the country's groaning waistline, politicians and public thinkers will hit every high-voltage line out there: issues of personal versus collective responsibility, entrenched businesses interests, and the fundamentally challenging hurdle of the human body's love of eating bacon-wrapped hot dogs washed down with a refreshing Pepsi-Cola.
Our right to choose our meals is squaring off with fat toddlers and epidemics of strokes and heart disease. The ideology of healthy living is fighting against the concept of the utterly unchained free market. Personal responsibility is lining up to battle the idea of communal responsibility.
If you're not already watching the food war as a titanic battle, start scanning the news with that framework in mind—there's a lot out there right now, and there'll be a lot more to come.
Image source: Vendnatural.com
I am so tired of all this. Yes, the woman should have the right to grow a garden in her front yard if she wishes. Yes, people probably should eat a little healthier and there are viable options for doing so...BUT NO ONE should be able to tell me what i can and can not eat. Frankly, i would rather have a juicy steak than a cucumber or a salad any day, and that is MY choice. Stop blaming the...+READ
I am so tired of all this. Yes, the woman should have the right to grow a garden in her front yard if she wishes. Yes, people probably should eat a little healthier and there are viable options for doing so...BUT NO ONE should be able to tell me what i can and can not eat. Frankly, i would rather have a juicy steak than a cucumber or a salad any day, and that is MY choice. Stop blaming the government, stop blaming the agribusnisses,stop blaming msg and and hfcs, stop blaming the processed food producers, it is the choice of each individual. If you're so sad and pathetic that you cannot stop stuffing your face with food that you know is bad for you, not our problem. If you choose to not want to eat meat, processed foods, or foods that contain certain additives, good for you, but don't push your beliefs on me. People need to take responsibility for themselves and for their actions. And the great thing about this being a free country is freedom of choice. Respect mine, and I'll respect yours.-COLLAPSE
ElizabethYarnell, thanks for the info. Now I understand why I like natto so much. The inclusion of those naturally-occurring glutamates is clearly a conspiracy by the soybean industry to get us all addicted! It's only a matter of time until the entire world is stirring up pots of slimy fermented beans for breakfast. Mmm, slimy fermented beans.
What no one has commented on is the addictive ingredients in most processed foods. Glutamates like MSG, for example, are used to make all kinds of foods taste better but they can create chemical reactions and addictions that make people crave the item more. Ever wonder why you really can't stop at just one chip?
If we're going to assign communal responsibility, let's look at the packaged food...+READ
What no one has commented on is the addictive ingredients in most processed foods. Glutamates like MSG, for example, are used to make all kinds of foods taste better but they can create chemical reactions and addictions that make people crave the item more. Ever wonder why you really can't stop at just one chip?
If we're going to assign communal responsibility, let's look at the packaged food purveyors and ask about the chemicals and additives they are pouring into our bodies while still calling it "food."-COLLAPSE
No, but we can blame fat on the prices of food, especialy heathy food. Fresh fruit and vegetables can be quite expensive.
No one disputed that frozen vegetables weren't generally cheap and widely available. The mantra of personal responsibility makes a lot of sense to people incapable of systematic thinking. Is it so hard to imagine that when big agribusiness is paid off with your tax dollars and mine, their products might have an unfair market advantage? That is not even to mention the legislation written on behalf...+READ
No one disputed that frozen vegetables weren't generally cheap and widely available. The mantra of personal responsibility makes a lot of sense to people incapable of systematic thinking. Is it so hard to imagine that when big agribusiness is paid off with your tax dollars and mine, their products might have an unfair market advantage? That is not even to mention the legislation written on behalf of Monsanto, Cargill, DuPont, Coca Cola Corporation, etc. Subsidy is just the beginning - even more than ending of subsidy, we need antitrust action against big agribusiness.
"I don't believe many green vegetables and other "healthy" produce thrive in the types of soil and climates present in middle-America."
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For one, that's complete nonsense. The coldest parts of Nebraska are growing zone 4a, which still has plenty of options for frost-tolerant produce.
What Florida and California have that Nebraska lacks is a self sustaining local market, as well as a few sub tropical specialties that are in demand nationwide. This enables them (to a degree) to sidestep the 2 monopolistic seed companies and 3 monopolistic grain trading companies that have by and large already crushed most middle American farmers, leading to larger and more productive farms that are somehow ever less profitable for their owners.-COLLAPSE
Name a market where I can't get cheap canned or frozen vegetables. Name ONE. You can't, because they all carry them. When the foods are both available and are reasonably priced, you can't point fingers at subsidies, big brother or anyone else, because, in the end, it all comes down to personal responsibilities and choices.
If not for corn, what would the Nebraska farmer grow? I ask this,...+READ
Name a market where I can't get cheap canned or frozen vegetables. Name ONE. You can't, because they all carry them. When the foods are both available and are reasonably priced, you can't point fingers at subsidies, big brother or anyone else, because, in the end, it all comes down to personal responsibilities and choices.
If not for corn, what would the Nebraska farmer grow? I ask this, because I don't believe many green vegetables and other "healthy" produce thrive in the types of soil and climates present in middle-America. Also, you'll note that when situations are different, as they are in California and Florida, different products comes from those areas. Imagine that! Despite all the finger pointing at subsidies, when the environment favors it, companies and farms choose to raise a medley of unsubsidized produce!-COLLAPSE
You blame liberals for the subsidies? Do you follow the news?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Republicans-dodge-farm-apf-1568302140.html?x=0
I blame obesity on liberals willingness to subsidize sugar and grains. Rich people don't want to pay for your food stamps or Medicare from irresponsible policies, anyways.
Ediblover, you didn't honestly just call the argument that American processed food producers get an advantage due to subsidy weak, did you? Please look into the facts a little harder [at all].
Also consider that subsidy and favorable legislation affects not only pricing, but also factors like availability, packaging quality, and advertising budget. Food choices are a little more complicated...+READ
Ediblover, you didn't honestly just call the argument that American processed food producers get an advantage due to subsidy weak, did you? Please look into the facts a little harder [at all].
Also consider that subsidy and favorable legislation affects not only pricing, but also factors like availability, packaging quality, and advertising budget. Food choices are a little more complicated than sticker price alone. Notice how your examples of cheap healthy foods are for frozen and canned ingredients? Wonder why that is? Wonder why you can buy a lean cuisine or a meal at McDonald's for much less than the cost of buying the fresh ingredients and making it yourself, even if you buy in bulk?-COLLAPSE
It isn't incorrect to say that junk food is cheaper than healthy food, but it's very misleading. I can go to just about any supermarket and buy 4 servings of a vegetable for $1; frozen, canned and in-season vegetables typically go for about that price. At the same time, a bag of sugar or other empty calorie food/ingredient is cheaper. So, yes, junk food is cheaper than healthy food. But, I...+READ
It isn't incorrect to say that junk food is cheaper than healthy food, but it's very misleading. I can go to just about any supermarket and buy 4 servings of a vegetable for $1; frozen, canned and in-season vegetables typically go for about that price. At the same time, a bag of sugar or other empty calorie food/ingredient is cheaper. So, yes, junk food is cheaper than healthy food. But, I wouldn't dare make the argument that $0.25 per serving of healthy food is too much or go on about subsidies; it'd be a very weak argument.-COLLAPSE
As lagatta says, junk food is cheaper than healthy food. A large part of the reason for this is the fact that the US government gives huge subsidies to farmers who grow grains and meat, and almost no subsidies to farms growing fruit and vegetables. Not exactly a free market, in my opinion.
Subsidy figures: http://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=00000
The no garden front yard is absurd. On the obesity thing, I've always thought it was bull. It's okay to take in 4k calories a day, if you use 4k calories a day. But, instead of that simple reasoning, too many people are more interested in blaming things like HFCS and gluten.
Don't spend money you don't have; stick with that and you'll be in good financial health. Don't take in excess calories...+READ
The no garden front yard is absurd. On the obesity thing, I've always thought it was bull. It's okay to take in 4k calories a day, if you use 4k calories a day. But, instead of that simple reasoning, too many people are more interested in blaming things like HFCS and gluten.
Don't spend money you don't have; stick with that and you'll be in good financial health. Don't take in excess calories you're not going to burn; stick with that and you'll be in good physical health.-COLLAPSE
This article doesn't quite look deeply enough into the 'free market.' Our government subsidizes large-scale producers of junkfood and writes legislation that leaves smaller producers of ready-to-eat produce and well-raised meats out in the cold or is even effectively punitive (the 2010 food safety bill - which actually penalizes small producers who have never been the problem and effectively...+READ
This article doesn't quite look deeply enough into the 'free market.' Our government subsidizes large-scale producers of junkfood and writes legislation that leaves smaller producers of ready-to-eat produce and well-raised meats out in the cold or is even effectively punitive (the 2010 food safety bill - which actually penalizes small producers who have never been the problem and effectively rewards the more industrial food producers actually responsible for repeated outbreaks by making it harder for their competition - is a fine example, but only one of many).
There are plenty of fine points in this article about innate human preference for sugar and fat. But this 'free market' talk is nonsense - until government gets out of the pockets of industrial food companies, our market isn't really free.-COLLAPSE
The Vend Natural machines are full of the same stuff as normal vending machines. Having the overabundance of fat and calories coming from organic produce doesn't suddenly transmute them from health to junk food.
The Economist also pointed out a key ... economic issue. "Over the last four years, the price of the healthiest foods has increased at around twice the rate of energy-dense junk food".
Another problem is a lack of knowledge - it is possible to produce very tasty food from vegetables and lean meats - with a modicum of seasoning, and yes, perhaps small amounts of good fats. But that takes skills...+READ
The Economist also pointed out a key ... economic issue. "Over the last four years, the price of the healthiest foods has increased at around twice the rate of energy-dense junk food".
Another problem is a lack of knowledge - it is possible to produce very tasty food from vegetables and lean meats - with a modicum of seasoning, and yes, perhaps small amounts of good fats. But that takes skills in choosing, planning and preparing foods to make tasty, healthful meals.-COLLAPSE