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Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Funny that that piece seems to have been tied to the 2004 election. An issue that’s fallen off the radar this year it seems. I just looked at a few of the presidential candidates’ web sites, and the only one that mentions farm subsidies at all is Mike Huckabee, who seems to be all for them, keeping cheap food cheap. Which is a little weird, given that Huckabee went on a big publicity campaign about diet and health not long ago; you’d think he’d get the connection.
Perhaps it’s the other way around? I wouldn’t say that the food industry works by them making the food and we eat whatever they make. It works because they make what we eat. That is to say, we eat a lot of fattening foods, they can see that they are popular just by taking a quick visual survey of any group of people. With this knowledge, they seek to make foods that they know we’ll eat.People are not eating healthy because they don’t want to. Not because the food industry isn’t making healthy foods. The food industry focuses on the foods people want to eat. Simple as that. That’s how any industry works, they make what sells. That’s all there is to it.People need to stop blaming everything and everyone but themselves for their being overweight. Take some responsibility, put down that pastry, eat a grapefruit instead. It’s about self control, dietary responsibility, and about taking the time to enjoy food instead of wolfing it down.Now, that being said. I think the government should probably help out a little bit with this issue. If fruit and veggies where cheaper, perhaps there would be a greater variety of healthy foods. I like the idea of a president or congressman running on a “I’ll make you thinner” campaign. Although I think the theory is just plain wrong, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to encourage the food industry to make foods that are better for us.
We’re advised to carefully read the labels and act sensibly.Even that advice is a sell-out. Most of the food I buy has no labels. I get fruits and vegetables (especially greens) at a farmers market. I buy grains in bulk (and cook with an automatic rice cooker). The only things I buy with labels are meat, eggs, cheese, and oil.A big part of the problem is that processed foods are so hugely profitable that the business can afford to spend vast fortunes trying to get people to buy more and more and more and more. Most of the spending is on advertising. The rest seems to be spent renting Congresscritters.
“People are not eating healthy because they don’t want to. Not because the food industry isn’t making healthy foods. The food industry focuses on the foods people want to eat. Simple as that. That’s how any industry works, they make what sells. That’s all there is to it.”Gosh, that’s right, it’s simple supply and demand. There’s no other factors involved. How much would supply and demand change if corn subsidies were reduced or eliminated? If meat producers got less? This is one area of the economy that definitely does not play by free-market rules–government handouts and protective regulations clearly skew the market.The processed food industry (and the restaurant industry) has one thing in common with the tobacco industry: they’ll fight tooth and nail to keep information out of the hands of consumers. And they’re quite happy to provide misleading information about the health benefits–some years ago industry lobbyists successfully petitioned the FDA to loosen standards for claims of health benefits, which is why there’s been such a huge increase in products touting themselves as “heart healthy” and so on.What products go into a typical supermarket is determined mainly by shelf fees paid by producers–producers buy shelf space, and competition for that space is fierce. Smaller, independent producers are generally locked out (or relegated to a ghetto area of the store). Produce is trucked in from California or Mexico or Texas, even when equivalent goods are available locally.There have been some positive changes–the growth of urban farmer’s markets and the like have helped people connect to their regional produce, and encouraged some supermarkets to increase their offerings. Awareness of the negative effects of industrial meat and produce production is increasing, but it is an uphill battle.
There are a few factors, and lately one has been trumpeted to completely ignoring the others. There is a structure to the food system that influences the diets of Americans. Cheap crappy food is part of that structure. However, raw ingredients are also fairly cheap. Veggies do not run as high of a bill as processed crap breakfast cereals. Another part of the matrix is individual choice. No one is forced to eat at McDonalds, just like no one is forced to drink YooHoos for lunch. The structure comes into play particularly for those people who cannot afford to buy healthier foods, or who simply do not have the time to do so.Part of the problem is that companies, through subsidies and marketing, are heaving tons of crap on the country. Another part of the problem is that we’ve been accepting that crap and haven’t been caring about our food. It’s always something you have to just “pick up” on your way home and scarf down so you can get to more “important” things like watching TV.Also, the more processed the food, the longer it lasts on the shelf, which plays into how we want food instantly without a lot of planning. Death of a thousand paper cuts.I’ve noticed that there’s a bit of an attack on corn in particular – as if there was something particularly bad about corn. High fructose corn syrup is sugar, which previously came from sugar beets until HFCS got cheaper. If the same food issues came up today with sugar beets – we would be demonizing beets. Corn has a huge yield which gives it an advantage. Sugar is sugar is calories – we need to focus on eating healthy without too many excess calories, almost no matter the source.Another big thing we need to address is our philosophy surrounding food. The time, effort, appreciation, attention, etc we give to food is helping us collectively walk down this muddy path. Corn is but a part of it all.
I just looked around the website/other videos that the guy who posted that video has. He sells food supplements, encourages phony-baloney “detox” programs, and promotes caricatures of medicine. Is there no one with their head on straight about what we put in our bodies?