Economy of sadness

[norsegirl]

The television here continues to be incredibly depressing. Interestingly, I am less depressed by the news than I am by the ads. Kraft is bombarding us with ads for how wonderfully cheap all their processed food products are.

Get twice as much Velveeta for the same price as cheddar!
Get 3 bowls of fun and delicious Kraft Dinner for only $1!
We can make yummy grilled cheese from Kraft Singles for only a few cents!

(those slogans are about as close to verbatim as I can recall)

Uuuugh. As if that is a healthy way to eat. It's such a shame that the most affordable way to eat is one that promotes malnutrition. I was listening to a show on the public radio station that was expressing much the same idea. The city of Detroit has only 5 grocery stores! 5 grocery stores in the whole city! The reasons are complex. As the urban population moves out to the suburbs, there are fewer people to patronize the businesses. Fast food is cheaper than buying and cooking your own healthy alternatives, so the people that are left don't buy groceries. And finally, there is a lack of education and motivation in the population to cook and eat "real" food, partly because the big marketing machines that sell fast food have won. They were interviewing urban farmers who were reclaiming the empty lots left behind by the masses fleeing the city, initially just to feed themselves but later expanding and making a living by selling their produce at urban farmer's markets. They were thinking that part of rehabilitating the urban community (especially the black community) was by getting back to their roots in the garden. The community that controls their food controls their future was what one of them said. They also criticized a McDonald's ad that showed a guy burning toast and dropping eggs and in the end, the slogan "leave breakfast to the experts", which they thought encourages society at large to abdicate their responsibility for making choices about their diet. It was a very interesting story and it has me thinking of working on some produce in my yard.

Comments

[hel_ana]

There are also people who don't have facilities to cook, as incredible as it seems. People on the margins might have a (frequently illegal) hotplate in their shared room or flophouse. And those are the lucky ones compared to people living in their cars.

[eve-the-just.livejournal.com]

A very good point, and one that I should have thought of having been denied the same comforts myself for the weeks we were moving (nothing more than a tiny mini-fridge in the hotel room). It wasn't something the radio show brought up though. Probably because just making an urban farm doesn't give those people control over their diets. It certainly is another issue on the table though.

[duir-sidhe.livejournal.com]

I just read Micheal Pollan's 'An Eaters Manifesto', and despite misgivings enjoyed so much that I have been pushing my copy on friends. A point that Em pulled out of it was that we have made room in our budget for many new things, cable tv, internet, even radio is working towards pay to use (XFM or whatever). This money has to come from somewhere, it looks like one of the sacrifices we have made is in our diet. Pollan argues that it is worth spending more for food and perhaps even eating less, but of a higher quality.

Pollan obviously frames the idea more elegantlythen I do, so I recommendhis book if you are thinking about food these days, its a quick read but truly worth it.

Obviously this is not the case for the truly marginal, those without the skills or means to even prepare food.

Produce in the back yard

[firefred.livejournal.com]

I agree with this sentiment, you will get stuff without all that chemical crap (think pesticides). I've been working with tomatoes and figs. Used to grow blackberries, but they froze to death. Peppers (any kind, bellpeppers, too) grow well in this climate. And vines. Nice grapes. Taste good. However, this winter has not been very helpful :(
So, in short, plant your own. Particularly the figs. Nothing kills them.
Those fast food ads make me feel faint.