Skimmed through but I’m sure I missed a lot of important posts so pardon if this point has already been mentioned

There is no doubt that given our access to wealth, the standards for our foods should increase to 1st world peers and we are clearly lagging

There are a couple main problems I can immediately think of that contribute to this but there are numerous issues we have

Food industry preventing necessary changes. How long was the low fat high sugar diet paraded, with absolutely full knowledge this was backwards. Several decades? Even now health literacy even amongst educated individuals remains poor, never the less lower socioeconomic tiers. Slowly changing but emphasis on slowly. Those naked brand juices that are so popular have 50+ g of sugar a pop. American college of pediatrics has placed juice in the same category as soda, albeit a couple decades late. High sugar is just one example, there are numerous carcinogens in our foods/drinks. In all of our lifetimes colon cancer screening guidelines will change to 40 and probably 35 because (from currently 45 and 50 a few years back) because of the alarming increase in colon cancer rates

Culture and accountability. Speaking broadly and generally, our culture is one to deflect accountability. Common across all socioeconomic tiers. We are stubborn to the core. It’s certainly complicated because billions upon billions of dollars over 40 years have gone into brainwashing a society, how do you really undo this? In medschool we ran a homeless shelter food services on Thursdays. The hits were pizza, lasagna. There was one time we made a health conscious chili , organic ground beef and cheese etc. the dude bringing the cheese separately was delayed so we got there with just the chili minus cheese. People actually preferred not to eat it and even when the cheese came word got out and they went to other shelters for their meal. I think we served less than 20 people and normally we would serve hundreds. So much time wasted that week ha. Because of shelter rules we were forced to throw away the food that was not eaten. Buckets of good quality chili in the garbage. We sneaked some to take back but had to throw away a lot.

This is just an anecdotal story but the food situation is layered with complexities and there isn’t just one problem

This post was edited by Bazi on Aug 2 2023 10:55am

this sentence alone highlights on of the greatest issues with American food culture. waste.

producers waste an inordinate amount of "ugly" food because it's unlikely to sell. or looks fine but is undersized. many items are priced per pound where size isn't that consequential, many other items are priced per item. on those items undersized produce is then tossed out because people are unlikely to buy a watermelon 3/4 the size of it's peers for the same price.

this same issue presents itself on the grocer's side, because it's perfectly legal to buy 110% of what you think you might sell, then when it goes bad write off the costs as a loss to the business. but if you buy 90% or even 100% of your projection you run the risk of running out.

which then exacerbates the issue with the firm that produces that product, because they must also overproduce to account for the overbought produce that's wasted and written off as a loss.

it's difficult to even draw up a legislative response to this issue, because oversight gets to logistically complex so fast it's untenable. and the simple fix, capping or eliminating write offs for spoiled product, would not only cause serious issues financially for smaller grocery stores but also in the end create food shortages for consumers as businesses grapple with actually ordering what they require.

this issue needed to be tackled 50 years ago or more, it's a stagnant pool of rot now. literally and figuratively.

it really has nothing to do with wealth

It has to do with ability to transport and keep food from spoiling.

As was said before me, good luck getting a constant fresh water supply in the desert

why does a grocery store in the more rich suburbs have higher quality food than the ghetto supermarket that's 10 miles away?

transportation and refrigeration costs are surely a factor, but as to the rest i dont even.

because the cia wants to kill the blacks and gays

Listen to This


Boogie Down Productions - Edutainment (1990)
KRS1


This post was edited by Mondain on Aug 2 2023 11:29am

so the fact that those households have less money, and the lower quality food is cheaper, has nothing to do with it? black people can secretly afford to shop at whole foods, but the CIA wont let them?

You were talking about ghetto areas, I think you're crossing wires.

They put the cheap unhealthy food in those grocery stores because those people are considered "useless eaters" NOT MY WORDS.

It isn’t about demographics, except social status. The CIA works for the interests of the wealthy, anyone who is not in that class is a potential target

This post was edited by MildSambal on Aug 2 2023 11:39am

I live in the inner city and the largest grocery store from my house is a low cost/targeting poor people supermarket. What I found, and generally think it's true is many grocers will carry things that are in demand. I mean it's not rocket science, you have historical sales of X, if X is consistently selling you stock shelves with X and not other things.

We have a huge Hispanic/South Asian (mostly Thai) population so you see a ton of Goya products and a ton of spices and fresh fruits and vegetables typically popular in east Asian cuisine. I actually see a fuck ton more specific type of fruits and vegetables compared to maybe a nice grocery store in the suburbs where it's mostly white. Things like fresh ginger, Asian pears, plantains, etc, you don't find in the same abundance at those other suburban grocers.

I don't really think there's this huge conspiracy theory here, most of the time laws of supply and demand find the equilibrium and that's what we see.

I think a big issue with food waste that is often overlooked is America's culture of frivolous lawsuits. It is economically advantageous for a grocer to throw out any food that is even slightly below par to protect themselves from lawsuits.

This also applies to Canada & other Anglosphere nations. Too much regulation & fear of making someone sick.

This post was edited by El1te on Aug 2 2023 11:42am