What you said is true…I would also add the organic, free range and grass fed type proteins are much LESS FATTENING than the cheaper stuff…..so the whole notion of too cheap = obesity is absurd. If food prices were lower, people could more easily afford the better proteins.
I’m not so sure they would choose it though...?
You might be interested to learn that there is no real discernible difference in the nutritional values of organic, free range, grass fed type proteins vs. the non-organic, non-free range, non-grass fed type proteins or in organic vegetables and fruits for that matter. Grass fed beef is slightly less in saturated fats and slightly higher in omega 3 fats but not to an extent that it makes any real difference to one’s diet and anyone who knows anything about good meat, knows that good marbling, i.e. the fat, is what differentiates prime meat from choice or lower grades of meat.
Organic foods are way overpriced and are IMO a lot of hype but people with too much disposable income and no or little knowledge of nutrition or science, especially in basic biology and chemistry fall for it. The last time I was at Wegman’s I was looking to by some fresh broccoli and cauliflower heads and the organic ones that were side by side with the “conventional” were nearly twice the price and half the size so guess what I ended up purchasing.
The very idea that we are fat because food is too cheap flies in the face of reason. The reason we are fat is we eat too much in general and we don’t move enough. One can get just as fat by eating too much all organic and so called healthy whole foods as they can living on junk foods. At the end of the day, eating too many calories no matter what the source and not exercising enough is what makes us fat.
Granted, those not eating an overall well balanced diet that includes a wide range of foods, including fresh vegetables and fruits and healthy grains and nothing but processed high fat or high sugar convenience foods with very little nutritional value, will for most people eventually cause health issues but at the end of the day, too many calories taken in and not enough burned off is what makes us fat.
Making food more expensive for everyone will not solve this problem and if concerns about good nutrition is their concern, that will only make it worse. People who make poor food choice will continue to do so especially if you and I are paying for it. Does anyone think that making food more expense will suddenly force people to eat more broccoli and brussel sprouts?
FWIW, I was over in the UK last October on a business trip. I was watching a news report on a story that was making big headlines over there at the time which was “how much food that is purchased is wasted” and what a severe problem some thought this was. And the biggest “offenders” was, get this, those pre-packaged fresh salad greens. The complaint seemed to be that they were too cheap and that too many stores were running BOGO deals, ergo too many people were buy too many healthy greens and then throwing some of them away in the trash bin as they went bad before they could all be eaten and what a waste of “resources” this was. They weren’t even trying to make the claim that this took food out of the mouths of poor people, but just the fact the some of the fresh foods being purchased were being thrown away was this was horrible and the only reasonable thing to do, the only solution to this horrible problem was to make it more expensive and force the grocers from not putting them on sale or doing the BOGO deals anymore and forcing them to stock less perishable items so that they run out before closing every night. (UGGG!)
One of the so called experts even recommended not buying any more food from the grocers than one could eat in any single day, i.e. shopping every day and not having any leftovers in the refrigerator.
I don’t recall her name but a conservative Tory former MP was interviewed and very correctly pointed out how ridiculous this was. She pointed out that with many working families, many with long commutes, shopping every day for groceries would not be practical for many, it would cut into their precious family time, and said something to the effect of “You are all so concerned about our so called carbon foot print (with a great big eye roll) but you have no concerns about burning more petrol in order to run to the store every day because a few leaves of lettuce get tossed into the bin? Are these tossed away leaves of lettuce taking anything out of hungry mouths? No. Are these grocers losing money because they sell these products on sale? No. If these grocers were actually losing money on overstocked items, do you think they would continue to do so? No. Do you think that forcing higher prices and artificially limiting supply and therefore the demand will make our famers suffer? Well? Try telling our produce famers that cutting their crops by a third will help prevent our poor overworked refuse haulers from suffering from the horrors of picking up bins with a few leaves of uneaten lettuce in them. Tell your kids that mum was two minutes late getting to the Tesco and all the produce was gone so we’ll have to eat some chips for dinner tonight instead. Such a “first” world problem this is. Really. Travel around the world, to many third world countries as I have done, look at the severely malnourished children and ask their mums if they would like to have such a problem as occasionally having to throw out some uneaten food.”