i work in community food and have a lot friends that work specifically in community/adult education for nutrition/food literacy. this is my experience in the urban south and deindustrialized uplands.
generally, fresh fruits and vegetables perish before processed foods, making them be regarded as a more expensive option. not to mention, the bottom of the barrel processed foods in the US are insanely cheap.
fresh produce also generally requires some labor time to convert it into a meal, which working families have been stripped of very ruthlessly. this doesn't apply to frozen veg or roots/tubers, but all it takes is one or two events of vegetables going bad in the fridge/basket and they become seen as "risky". a lot of people lack the knowledge to evaluate produce on the shelf for longevity/freshness, which is a tight window at the supermarket since everything has been in a shipping container for like 7-10 days already. this isn't even getting into food prep knowledge.
the typical american kitchen is set up and kitted out for warming up already processed foods that are purchased in bulk for volume discount and the typical american brain sees fruits/vegetables as a premium purchase for a "special" meal, not the daily routine of getting the kids / self fed before and after work. even in the more affluent-appearing suburbs, the kitchens may have all the big appliances for lavish meals, but that's not what's happening day to day. boxed cereal, hot dogs, toaster pastries. everyone is on the run.
it takes repeated effort and usually some kind of sweetener (double dollars for EBT at local markets, etc) to snap people out of this mindset into conceptualizing meal prep as something enriching for health and family, but for very broke people feeling the squeeze, it's easier to fall into the habit of frozen comfort foods they can slap into a hotbox with an alarm so they can sit down and rest their eyes.
...
it should also be mentioned, that fruit and vegetable production systems are nowhere near as subsidized by government programs as grain/soy production. direct payments, risk management/federal crop insurance programs, short term credit schemes, and resource cost share is all set up around beef, pork, dairy and grains/soy. it can be done for fruit and vegetables, but it's dribs and drabs in most of the US outside of the megafarm vegetable regions like CA, GA and FL who have like associations with legal teams and access to nontraditional financing.
All good points. I’m a 2nd generation immigrant to the US so I grew up eating Syrian food actually cooked by mom, with whatever fresh American replacement ingredients were available. It’s pretty strange to me the diets here in the US and it’s obvious they are extremely unhealthy and unsustainable.
The solution to this kind of thing seems like worker canteens and group kitchens where there’s cheap/free mass prepared decent food. Not crappy addictive sugary processed bullshit. The concept of atomized individual kitchen units only made sense when you had a fulltime housewife in the 1950s. Now both parents work usually so cooking is less feasible time wise. Historically people have eaten and cooked very communally, or there was dedicated cooks in each family unit.
yeah, our food system is pretty catastrophic. the atomization of the household into "nuclear" families and assimilation of immigrants basically wiped out most our connections to whatever traditional food cultures we brought over and replaced it with a highly profitable land management regime to supply the national eating disorder. both in the sale of the "food" and in the pharmaceutical treatment of its effects.
worker canteens and group kitchens would be a godsend, but would be very unpopular with the fast food companies and the large agribusiness firms that supply them. capitalism has actively dismantled and suppressed any good ideas from taking hold.
i've been lucky enough to travel overseas for work and immerse myself in other food cultures. basically everywhere is so much better off than the US. like even if i go wild, eat my fill constantly, and not even try to make healthy choices.... i end up leaning out and feeling awesome if i'm there more than a month.
i work in community food and have a lot friends that work specifically in community/adult education for nutrition/food literacy. this is my experience in the urban south and deindustrialized uplands.
generally, fresh fruits and vegetables perish before processed foods, making them be regarded as a more expensive option. not to mention, the bottom of the barrel processed foods in the US are insanely cheap.
fresh produce also generally requires some labor time to convert it into a meal, which working families have been stripped of very ruthlessly. this doesn't apply to frozen veg or roots/tubers, but all it takes is one or two events of vegetables going bad in the fridge/basket and they become seen as "risky". a lot of people lack the knowledge to evaluate produce on the shelf for longevity/freshness, which is a tight window at the supermarket since everything has been in a shipping container for like 7-10 days already. this isn't even getting into food prep knowledge.
the typical american kitchen is set up and kitted out for warming up already processed foods that are purchased in bulk for volume discount and the typical american brain sees fruits/vegetables as a premium purchase for a "special" meal, not the daily routine of getting the kids / self fed before and after work. even in the more affluent-appearing suburbs, the kitchens may have all the big appliances for lavish meals, but that's not what's happening day to day. boxed cereal, hot dogs, toaster pastries. everyone is on the run.
it takes repeated effort and usually some kind of sweetener (double dollars for EBT at local markets, etc) to snap people out of this mindset into conceptualizing meal prep as something enriching for health and family, but for very broke people feeling the squeeze, it's easier to fall into the habit of frozen comfort foods they can slap into a hotbox with an alarm so they can sit down and rest their eyes.
...
it should also be mentioned, that fruit and vegetable production systems are nowhere near as subsidized by government programs as grain/soy production. direct payments, risk management/federal crop insurance programs, short term credit schemes, and resource cost share is all set up around beef, pork, dairy and grains/soy. it can be done for fruit and vegetables, but it's dribs and drabs in most of the US outside of the megafarm vegetable regions like CA, GA and FL who have like associations with legal teams and access to nontraditional financing.
All good points. I’m a 2nd generation immigrant to the US so I grew up eating Syrian food actually cooked by mom, with whatever fresh American replacement ingredients were available. It’s pretty strange to me the diets here in the US and it’s obvious they are extremely unhealthy and unsustainable.
The solution to this kind of thing seems like worker canteens and group kitchens where there’s cheap/free mass prepared decent food. Not crappy addictive sugary processed bullshit. The concept of atomized individual kitchen units only made sense when you had a fulltime housewife in the 1950s. Now both parents work usually so cooking is less feasible time wise. Historically people have eaten and cooked very communally, or there was dedicated cooks in each family unit.
yeah, our food system is pretty catastrophic. the atomization of the household into "nuclear" families and assimilation of immigrants basically wiped out most our connections to whatever traditional food cultures we brought over and replaced it with a highly profitable land management regime to supply the national eating disorder. both in the sale of the "food" and in the pharmaceutical treatment of its effects.
worker canteens and group kitchens would be a godsend, but would be very unpopular with the fast food companies and the large agribusiness firms that supply them. capitalism has actively dismantled and suppressed any good ideas from taking hold.
i've been lucky enough to travel overseas for work and immerse myself in other food cultures. basically everywhere is so much better off than the US. like even if i go wild, eat my fill constantly, and not even try to make healthy choices.... i end up leaning out and feeling awesome if i'm there more than a month.