Remember When Poverty Meant Skinny?
Back in the day, being poor meant you didn't have enough to eat. Not anymore. Thanks to cheap Mac & Cheese and other cheap high fat processed foods on the market.
Posted by Rosemary on
08.28.2007
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R.I.P. Steven Malcolm Anderson
Minion
of the Week
[Homer Simpson gurgle]
"Unprocessed Fish Sticks"
[Homer Simpson gurgle]
;)
That said, I've never gotten the fresh/least processed = most expensive. It doesn't cost that much to grown any type of food (in it's natural habitat - seeds for rare and exotic plants can become pricy) per hectacre. However, Americans buy into the 'fresher is better' crap with a vengeance. Don't assume the crap being hauked at the Whole Foods it good for you because it says "organic" or "whole" anything. They're just as apt to lie to you about additives and processing because you'll foot the bill for them to do it. The safest measure to ensure you're getting the food you're paying for is to grow it yourself. Window boxes are ridiciously easy to grow from, as are hydroponics, and you don't need expensive shit from catalogs to do it.
I know Mississippians and they aren't fat. I wonder if this "Mississippi is fattest" aplies only to those still living in Mississippi? If so, does that implicate the eating habits of the home state, or just those living there? IE, are any of the obese numbers move-ins or illegals? Does this trend hold for Mississippians that leave Mississippi as children or adults? Are Mississippians that reside outside their homeland still subject to this study? The answers to those questions could screw the graphing data.
It has a lot to do with mass production enabled by high-tech preservatives. Cost per unit goes down under those circumstances, although the profit per unit probably goes up which is why that stuff is always in your face.
As for growing your own, it has long been known that the most efficient use of farmland (in terms of energy-in/energy-out) is individual farming, i.e., small family farms. The profit is low, but so is the barrier to entry.
Unfortunately for the small business farmers, corporate farming is replacing them. Energy-sucking automation, fertilizers and insecticides enable large corporate farms to tend more acres with fewer people. The result is higher profit, more energy use ... and unemployed farmers.
I'm a farmer, I just grow enough to supplement what I buy at the local markets (the Commissary produce section stinks), as well as family favorites (jalapeños) that aren't available here. I'm not looking to make money from it, but I am farming and growing stuff.
Farming is given this mystic that it doesn't deserve. Organic farming is the biggest rip-off on the face of the planet! Until the mid to late 20th century everyone grew their own back gardens, it's not hard or expensive. Just stop tryin' to make more money than the Jones corporation and get back to the enjoyment of the soil, sun and rain.