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I view this as a threat to our very living standard in the worst possible way. I can remember when we had choices on where to buy our goods and services but now we all are herded like cattle from one monster business to yet another monster business for most everything we need to live and survive.
"It is no longer news that a few powerful corporations have literally occupied the vast majority of human sustenance. The situation is perilous: nearly all of human food production, seeds, food processing and sales, is run by a handful of for-profit firms which, like any capitalist enterprise, function to maximize profit and gain ever-greater market share and control. The question has become: What do we do about this disastrous alignment of pure profit in something so basic and fundamental to human survival?"
Americans pay about 6% of their income for food. In most of the world, food costs 30% or more of the income of the workers. The distribution and availability of food in America is nothing short of miraculous. Big food is what makes it possible. Economy of scale and high tech processing.
I view this as a threat to our very living standard in the worst possible way. I can remember when we had choices on where to buy our goods and services but now we all are herded like cattle from one monster business to yet another monster business for most everything we need to live and survive.
I have never been forced or herded to any store what so ever. Most stores big or small could care less about me.
Americans pay about 6% of their income for food. In most of the world, food costs 30% or more of the income of the workers. The distribution and availability of food in America is nothing short of miraculous. Big food is what makes it possible. Economy of scale and high tech processing.
If you account for the large amounts of arable land we have and that much of the food is substandard crap causing chronic disease, its not very impressive. It is also not sustainable and we are depending on new technology to bail us out.
I think this one is a legitimate concern, especially what Monsanto is doing with the genetically modified seeds. Right now the seeds are invading independent farmers fields, and the Monsanto is suing them because it has the seeds copywrited. They have even tried to copywrite traditional crop seeds that are being used in other parts of the world.
Unfortunately I am part of the problem because I am too lazy to search out locally grown foods and just go to the supermarket because it is convenient. I doubt any activist group will have any impact on the problem unless they come up with a system that makes it convenient for people with other priorities to support local farming.
is it not true that life expectancy has gone up? I think we are living longer. I dont eat crap food but sometime I think about that half of the equation and feel better!
Americans pay about 6% of their income for food. In most of the world, food costs 30% or more of the income of the workers. The distribution and availability of food in America is nothing short of miraculous. Big food is what makes it possible. Economy of scale and high tech processing.
I think your chart is misleading and it even says Percent of household final consumption expenditures , not percent of total income. 6% would amount to a diet of water and saltine crackers,maybe some baloney around my area. I can take $100 bill and shop frugally and with a family of four...poof it's gone and I'm shopping again in 3-4 days.
I noticed a sudden increase of folks in the cheap bag-it-yourself stores like Save-A-Lot around here and sometimes you can't even find a shopping cart. It's like the food companies have learned from the healthcare, gasoline, and cable tv companies the fine art of price gouging. A 24 slice pack of processed cheese that just 3 or 4 years ago went for 99 cents is all of the sudden $1.99 or $2.29 and don't even get me started on the smaller quantity/smaller package-same price trickery, we're gettin bent over and bad.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I just did the calculation based on what we make and what we spend on food and it came out 6%. Slightly more than our winter utility bills.
We go once a month to Costco, and only to Safeway or other large supermarkets when they have things we use on sale. During the summer we buy locally grown produce from a farmer's market and do grow some of our own, mostly because fresh picked just tastes better.
Lately I have notice that the organic produce is cheaper than regular, and
It used to be a lot more expensive. Apparently because no one buys it they have had to lower the price.
Big Food doesn't have to go. There is a thriving niche market for fresh, direct from the farmer food.
No one is forced to buy one or the other.
It's all about choice here. Just be a smart and informed shopper.
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which is what many people are doing these days which is nice to see. Obviously this is a concern of people.
