I also think it's very interesting to consider what's going to happen when our 3rd world counterparts start producing the same kind of crap we eat here. For example, I went to Mexico at the beginning of the month and went into a convenience store. I was AMAZED at the kind of snacks they were selling - and the similarity between their snacks and American snacks.
"That's why McDonald's can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 — a bargain, given that the meal contains nearly 1,200 calories, more than half the daily recommended requirement for adults."
Are they saying a person should eat less than 1200 calories a day? Or that 600 is what you should eat daily? It's on page 2.
I think that people wouldn't mind paying more for meat and so on if they knew that part of that money was going to better treatment for animals and better treatment of land. I know I wouldn't.
I agree that most cheap food is *not* cheap. The cost is just shifted. Same is true of most cheap products (non-food). Someone is paying. Either you (as a tax-payer), you (with your health), you (materialism and clutter), an underpaid worker, a creator or small business owner who can't compete with big industry, the earth (often paying dearly), etc. Things cost. I think it's wise to be highly suspicious of the true cost of most things "cheap." It's one thing to make do when living in poverty. It's another thing to fill your life with "wants" that are cheap due to unethical or harmful practices. I don't mean to be preachy - it's very difficult to avoid that stuff in this society. But I have a big problem with people not even trying in the least or denying that "true cost" even matters, or that they shouldn't be responsible for their choices.
"That's why McDonald's can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 — a bargain, given that the meal contains nearly 1,200 calories, more than half the daily recommended requirement for adults."
Are they saying a person should eat less than 1200 calories a day? Or that 600 is what you should eat daily? It's on page 2.
I read this as saying: you can get over half of your daily caloric intake requirement for only 5 dollars.
"That's why McDonald's can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 — a bargain, given that the meal contains nearly 1,200 calories, more than half the daily recommended requirement for adults."
The daily recommended requirement for adults is considered to be 2000 calories (any nutrition label always says 'based on an average diet of 2000 cals). Half of the daily req would be 1000, so 1200 is more than half the daily average.
I read an article earlier this year about Greece and the growing obesity problem in children there, and it talked about American foods and snacks become more popular. The kids are eating more fast food, more convenience foods and more snacking. They are getting less active as well. It talked about how they weren't following the typical 'Mediterranean' diet that can be so good for you and are starting to eat like us now...
I think that people wouldn't mind paying more for meat and so on if they knew that part of that money was going to better treatment for animals and better treatment of land. I know I wouldn't.
I hate to be a "doomsday Debbie"...but what's going to happen when we run out of land? Especially when countries that used to be poor start to mimic us, our ways of life, and start the same practices we've used here?
And I really have to wonder about all the hormones in our food. It's interesting to me that kids seem to be getting bigger/taller, sooner.
I think part of the problem is that it's a new problem. Until only the last couple generations, getting enough food (calories) was a much more common problem than getting too many.
Considering that the human race has a 40,000 year history of trying to get enough (calories) to eat, and only 30 to 50 years of having too much - it's going to take some effort to change people's focus to being choosy about where the calories come from.
And I really have to wonder about all the hormones in our food. It's interesting to me that kids seem to be getting bigger/taller, sooner.
Part of this may just be an overabundance of calories, period. Girls, for example, are developing earlier, because they are hitting puberty earlier...the biggest trigger for puberty is a level of body fat high enough to sustain a pregnancy. So there are a lot of factors going into growth rates.
The whole reason that corn and soy are cheap is because the government subsidizes them (with my and your tax money). So we pay either way, it just seems like we're not paying as much for the junk because its buried in our tax obligations. The farm bill actively encourages cheap, unhealthy junk, using our tax dollars.
I don't think the article comes off pro-vegetarian at all. And I say that as a vegan who would love to see more mainstream pro-vegetarian/vegan stuff out there.
There is a HUGE cost to providing cheap vegetables to North America, too. Broccoli and other cruciferous veggies that you buy HERE for pennies are grown in South America. These crops displace the native crops and the indigenous populations won't eat them, making them turn to the crap provided in the grocery stores instead of their traditional diets.
It isn't about the MEAT people. It is about an American population that complains that food costs too much and look for the cheapest solution regardless of the impact this has on the populations of food-growing countries AND the food-growers in their own backyards...
The high cost of cheap food...
