I hope that the main takeaway from people here is not to cut funding/grants to farms, but rather to revise them as the article states in order to incentivize growing healthier food options.
Frozen and canned fruits and vegetables are always cheap and plentiful. Fresh is always going to be more expensive because of the way growing seasons work.
In the future we will need more localized greenhouse farming because of water issues in the Southwest where most vegetables are grown (for u.s. consumption)
I mean… how many calories are in that big thing of salad mix? A few hundred probably. Compared to 1500 calories in a pound of ground beef.
Most fruits/veggies are pretty bad at giving calories. Even the mighty potato is only 400ish calories for a pound .
Grain/beans trounce meat in terms of energy per dollar spent, but I think that’s why it’s become so common to do grain/beans + meat. Meat is way more calorie/cost efficient than veggies, so it’s the perfect way to modify your grains/beans to be tastier and more filling.
So yeah, pushing that money to make it so that veggies are cheaper per calorie than meat would be super nice. So super agree on in door farming, I hope we get more of that.
Was about to say Whaaat? You want me to not be able to afford McDonalds or regular groceries now? Fruit and vegetables both are expensive as fuck when you have a couple kids.
Bananas are about the only thing that's still dirt cheap lol. Eggs have finally gone down. How about subsidize the good food too while enacting carbon taxes on meat.
It is even it’s covered in American cheese which adds no flavor and increases calories by a lot and it’s on a bun made of American wheat, which increases calories by a lot and it’s covered in sugary ketchup and it comes with fried potatoes and a large soda made out of corn syrup.
Turns a normal amount of calories into 2k calories when you add in all the crap.
American cheese definitely adds flavor; that’s the whole point of it. Ketchup is meh. Fries are tasty, but admittedly quite bad for you. Diet sodas are a thing.
How are they measuring the costs here? Even fast-food burgers have significantly shot up in price.
If we go by raw ingredients, then healthy food can be considerably cheaper than pre-made garbage and fast food.
If we add the time cost of traveling to a grocery store, shopping, and then preparing the healthier food, then it could become more expensive.
There's also the fact that most of the USA has absolute shit public transportation which increases the burden for people who can't afford cars to get groceries in the first place. That and the time costs can be reduced with grocery deliveries, however. this might not be a viable option in all areas or work schedules; You want to be home when the groceries are delivered.
Then there is the fact that there are a lot of food deserts , especially in low-income areas. This can make it harder, if not impossible for people to even get healthier food.
Not sure where I'm going with my train of thought here...
The Farm Bill, every politician will say is to help the hard working American family farms, but actually just funnels billions into the agri-corps that keep them in power.
Reform-minded legislators have previously floated the idea of rewriting the Farm Bill to favor smaller family operations instead of agri-conglomerates like Con-Agra – to near-universal dissent from farmers. No matter the reality of the situation, conservative media has them convinced that they’re just one good season away from riches, and they don’t want to lose their subsidies when that happens.
Are there any who don’t support it? And if you find someone who doesn’t, does that outweigh the things they disagree with you on? Representative democracy doesn’t have the granularity to focus on anything other than the most important issues.
