healthy food is expensive, but junk food is cheap
Being dirt poor these days, I had already noticed the trend a few years ago. A big jar of salsa at the grocery store costs less than the equivalent volume of homemade salsa. That's sad. That's very sad.
Apparently there are people who study these things, and they have announced the same findings in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The opening paragraph of the news article sums it up nicely:
"As the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables and other low-calorie foods have jumped nearly 20 percent in the past two years, the UW researchers say, a nutritious diet may be moving out of the reach of some American consumers."
Yep, I had noticed. I remember watching a tv episode in which Bill Maher asks why America is the only country with homeless people who are fat. I'm pretty sure this price problem figures into the equation somewhere.
Why is this increase happening? I don't know. Does it have to do with rising costs of land, forcing farms further away from cities and even away from North America altogether? If so, then rising transportation costs come into play, and the needs to process these foods for storage before trying to ship them anywhere. Climate control for long trips probably gets expensive too. I hope the trend for locally-produced food catches on quickly. But I can't see it happening unless costs decrease for local farming, wherever you live.
Apparently there are people who study these things, and they have announced the same findings in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The opening paragraph of the news article sums it up nicely:
"As the prices of fresh fruit and vegetables and other low-calorie foods have jumped nearly 20 percent in the past two years, the UW researchers say, a nutritious diet may be moving out of the reach of some American consumers."
Yep, I had noticed. I remember watching a tv episode in which Bill Maher asks why America is the only country with homeless people who are fat. I'm pretty sure this price problem figures into the equation somewhere.
Why is this increase happening? I don't know. Does it have to do with rising costs of land, forcing farms further away from cities and even away from North America altogether? If so, then rising transportation costs come into play, and the needs to process these foods for storage before trying to ship them anywhere. Climate control for long trips probably gets expensive too. I hope the trend for locally-produced food catches on quickly. But I can't see it happening unless costs decrease for local farming, wherever you live.