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Economy of sadness
Jan. 26th, 2009 03:32 pmThe 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.
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.
