The Real Reason Big Macs Are Cheaper Than More Nutritious Alternatives

[Brewman_Jax]

http://www.alternet.org/food/151660/the_...ernatives/

From the article:

Quote:The easiest way to explain Gallup's discovery that millions of Americans are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than they ate last year is to simply crack a snarky joke about Whole Foods really being "Whole Paycheck." Rooted in the old limousine liberal iconography, the quip conjures the notion that only Birkenstock-wearing trust-funders can afford to eat right in tough times.

It seems a tidy explanation for a disturbing trend, implying that healthy food is inherently more expensive, and thus can only be for wealthy Endive Elitists when the economy falters. But if the talking point's carefully crafted mix of faux populism and oversimplification seems a bit facile -- if the glib explanation seems almost too perfectly sculpted for your local right-wing radio blowhard -- that's because it dishonestly omits the most important part of the story. The part about how healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone right now, if not for those ultimate elitists: agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians they own.

As with most issues in this new Gilded Age, the tale of the American diet is a story of the worst form of corporatism -- the kind whereby the government uses public monies to protect private profit.

In this chapter of that larger tragicomedy, lawmakers whose campaigns are underwritten by agribusinesses have used billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize those agribusinesses' specific commodities (corn, soybeans, wheat, etc.) that are the key ingredients of unhealthy food. Not surprisingly, the subsidies have manufactured a price inequality that helps junk food undersell nutritious-but-unsubsidized foodstuffs like fruits and vegetables. The end result is that recession-battered consumers are increasingly forced by economic circumstance to "choose" the lower-priced junk food that their taxes support.

Corn -- which is processed into the junk-food staple corn syrup and which feeds the livestock that produce meat -- exemplifies the scheme.

"Over the past decade, the federal government has poured more than $50 billion into the corn industry, keeping prices for the crop ... artificially low," reports Time magazine. "That's why McDonald's can sell you a Big Mac, fries and a Coke for around $5 -- a bargain."

Yes, it is a bargain, but one created by deliberate government policy that serves the corn industry titans, not by any genetic advantage that makes corn derivatives automatically more affordable for the budget-strapped commoner.

The aggregate effect of such market manipulation across the agriculture industry, notes Time, is "that a dollar [can] buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh fruit."

So while it may be amusing to use Americans' worsening recession-era diet as another excuse to promote cultural stereotypes, the nutrition crisis costing us billions in unnecessary healthcare costs is more about public policy and powerful special interests than it is about epicurean snobs and affluent tastes. Indeed, this is a problem not of individual proclivities or of agricultural biology that supposedly makes nutrition naturally unaffordable -- it is a problem of rigged economics and corrupt policymaking.

...

Another graphic example of Big Corporate control of government, and not the other way around. This is why the unhealthy and crappy processed foods are so cheap and easy to get and the reason behind the country's over-expanded waistlines.

[NJMaverick]

which is most likely one of the reasons that fast food places tend to steer clear of them, too much spoilage and having the workers inspect the food.

[Peacetrain]

This is part of an area I worked in for years with low income families.. and one of the biggest reasons we see so much fast food consumed is lack of access to grocery stores. If anything is available it is a convenience store type of operation with limited selections and prices through the roof.

Go into many distressed neighborhoods..how many grocery stores do you see? Then you have a lack of transport to pull groceries in.

For some people fast food is it. That is why there is such a push to have fast food places offer healthy alternatives.

We can talk the talk till we turn blue in the face.. but if all you have to access is that.. doesn't do you a lot of good.

And this has become generational.. look at your own grocery stores.. 70% of that stuff on the shelves is pre prepared or just add water.

This big chain stores that have run small groceries out of buisness.. need to get their backsides into distressed neighborhoods so people can access whole foods

End of Rant

[NJMaverick]

(07-18-2011 08:07 AM)Peacetrain Wrote:  This is part of an area I worked in for years with low income families.. and one of the biggest reasons we see so much fast food consumed is lack of access to grocery stores. If anything is available it is a convenience store type of operation with limited selections and prices through the roof.

Go into many distressed neighborhoods..how many grocery stores do you see? Then you have a lack of transport to pull groceries in.

For some people fast food is it. That is why there is such a push to have fast food places offer healthy alternatives.

We can talk the talk till we turn blue in the face.. but if all you have to access is that.. doesn't do you a lot of good.

And this has become generational.. look at your own grocery stores.. 70% of that stuff on the shelves is pre prepared or just add water.

This big chain stores that have run small groceries out of buisness.. need to get their backsides into distressed neighborhoods so people can access whole foods

End of Rant

That's an excellent point. The small places have little to no selection of healthy offerings.

[Ikonoklast]

This exemplifies the adage that whatever you subsidize, you get more of.

There is a definite government policy in this country for cheap food; unfortunately, not healthy food.

That isn't to say that we couldn't see fit to make some changes to that policy, after all, in the long run it would pay off in a healthier population that has less health issues as they age.

Kinda like an invest now, get the payback years down the road type of deal.




I will say this, however, as long as there is ONE hungry child, ONE malnourished senior, ONE homeless person without a meal let alone a place to sleep we are failing as a nation. There is enough wealth in this country to feed, clothe, and house every person in need, but there is little political will to to do so.


And that is this country's greatest failure.

[Velleity]

McDonalds also uses cellulose (wood pulp) as a cheap filler.