Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Walsh
Eating locally/organic isn't exactly easy here in usualtown, USA. Since my wife's food allergies we've been extremely sensitive on how much food costs and what's in it. It would NOT be easy to feed a family on organic/non-processed foods. As it is I'm cooking 6+ dinners a week on average + all of her lunches.(granted I eat pretty crapily for breakfast and lunch, she has just a glass of milk for breakfast). If I had to switch over to local/organic our food bill would quadruple which doesn't even count the increased prep time . As it is when we cut out corn, soy and wheat our food bill doubled.
Take this test: Go to your local supermarket(publix, food lion, etc) and price out a dozen eggs, a gallon of milk, a lb of butter, half a dozen peppers and a loaf of bread. Now go to your local organic market(fresh market, whole paycheck.. I mean whole foods, etc) for the same items. Doubled in price, easily. I work at a university, and if I wasn't a DINK(dual income, no kids) with a good job it would be completely impossible to eat that way, completely.
I know that organic/local is the ideal, but for the majority of america, it's just not possible.
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You are making my point. Why is it possible for someone living in eg. France on a comparable income, to eat entirely fresh and organic food bought daily at their local market?
The entire "Big Food" system in the US needs to be turned on its head. Big Food doesn't make food cheaper. It just redistributes food costs to transporters, advertisers, shareholders, CEO bonuses etc etc—instead of paying it to the farmer.
And this won't change until consumers start insisting on change. Education is part of such change—or should be. That's why "Food Inc" and books and films like it are so important.