I've got 13 cans of black beans and 20lbs of rice in the cupboard. Life is good.
Obviously it varies from place to place, but don’t a lot of people’s diets in the global south consist of vegetables and rice and beans and stuff?
for most subsistence farmers beans and rice are too expensive to get your daily caloric needs. in the poor villages I've visited here you're probably looking at a dollar for about 2 pounds of beans or rice, and that is assuming there's no logistic issues or fleecing going on raising prices, which is way too much alone for someone who is making roughly a dollar a day or less. Even people who work salaried jobs aren't gonna be spending the extra cost to go vegan when they're paycheck to paycheck. Its absolutely vital to cook your food in lard or other animal fat, making refried beans or whatever else, since the caloric count per dollar is just so much better. Even then most of the subsistence farmers you see are chronically malnourished to a large degree.
Check out a farmer's market. There's usually one weird old person who runs a mushroom farm in their basement who will sell you the best mushrooms you've ever tasted.
I don't get the only eat rice and bean meme. Are literally all vegetables super expensive in the US? Is rice the only cheap carbs you can get? What about plant based oil and fats? Or are 95% of the planet not in a position to cook fresh?
I won't pretend to know what goes on in peoples heads, but I'd agree this might very well be what's going on in at least some cases.
Ah, as an example for notoriously cheap food, that makes sense. I sometimes read it as a thing omnis say, "the only vegan diet most people can afford is exclusively rice and beans", and it confuses me. Thanks for explaining. No need for a list, I'll make my own when I go to the grocer :michael-laugh:
It's not only that vegetables are expensive, a large part of the problem is access -- so called food deserts. People lack reliable transportation frequently when they're impoverished (taking groceries on a bus fucking suuuucks), and don't have the means to go where fresh produce is sometimes, which is a hidden cost factor. This compounds in certain geographic areas with population sparsity and lack of critical infrastructure.
I'm not sure what plant based oils or fats you have in mind, you can get canola or sunflower oil for cheap relative to caloric density for sure, I think rice and beans are just metonymic for cheap and dense readily available vegan options in general.
I have heard about food deserts, and also about lack of mixed development / zoning in the US. But both of these phenomenons are very alien to me, maybe that's why I cannot really understand how one would not be able to get hold of veggies or what other dieatary restrictions this can impose on a person. I don't know much about public transport in the US, but can understand that depending on circumstances, it could be very hard to transport large quantities of food. Also, some people cannot reliably afford public transport in the first place.
