Food Quality in the US

The Sandbox Political Topics
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Getting the topic with an article…it isn’t an explicitly political topic, but I think you can translate the rating into one.

Food in the US should be recognized as one of the biggest “policy” failures of our lifetimes. In the last few decades, we have watched Walmart and Dollar General take over retail in rural America, chasing out small local grocers and replacing the options with cheap and processed foods.

"EVENSVILLE, Tenn.—The local Dollar General store, built on a rural highway and surrounded by farmland, sells no fresh meat, greens or fruit. Yet the 7,400-square-foot steel-sided store has most of what Eddie Watson needs.

The selection echoes a suburban drugstore chain, from shower curtains to breakfast cereal, toilet paper, plastic toys and camouflage-pattern socks. Refrigerators and freezers on one wall hold milk, eggs and frozen pizza."

We treat diet related issues with medicine. Insulin, blood pressure meds, cholesterol meds. Diet (and exercise) also have dramatic impacts on our mental health, so we spend more for cocktails of drugs to keep us happy, and deal with our waste lines getting larger.

“There is an epidemic of obesity in adults in rural America. It is estimated that about 19% of the population resides in rural areas, which encompasses 97% of America’s total landmass. Although rural America makes up a fraction of America’s total population, it has been estimated that the prevalence of obesity is approximately 6.2 times higher than in urban America. This illustrates an apparent disparity that exists between the rural population and urban populations that needs to be examined.”

Democrats and progressives are known for things like banning big gulps and red meat, while the impacts of our diets are seen most in red America. Taking away choice is very anti-American, but how can we help Americans make better choices?

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What?

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Curious how they got that 6.2× higher number. I’d have thought 6.2× higher would put the prevalence at like 120 people out of 100.

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It doesn’t match what they write elsewhere -

In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a greater than 40% prevalence of obesity in the U.S. Its prevalence remained significantly higher among adults residing in rural counties (34.2%) compared to those living in urban counties (28.7%) with over one-third of the American population classified as obese

I don’t know how you can get a weighted average of 40% from 34.2% and 28.7%.

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I’d also be curious about the age distribution between rural and urban (my guess is rural is higher average age), and whether obesity rates vary by age in the same way.

The US has done a good job of keeping food costs low through agricultural subsidies. The public policy question is do you want to try to influence what crops are grown to influence what people choose to eat? The growth of corporate agriculture will pose challenges due to consolidation of farms concentrating power.

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There was some discussion in this thread, oddly enough:

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Best sellers include canned Vienna sausages and frozen pizza.

Yikes!

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What is right. Maybe it is 6.2% higher rather than 6.2x? Maybe it is severe obesity (BMI>40) but even that would be surprising.

But rates increase generally as you move into more to rural and poorer areas. It is not that people can’t afford food, but somehow, they seem to end up with the wrong food along those variables.

It is a product of our system. We focus on quantity over quality, and food pyramids over nutrition. Big corporations push agendas that get more of their food on your plates, and we fight to keep it that way because of freedom and because America created it.

This all feeds back into healthcare costs with poorer results. But how can we expect a better result when the only access to food nearby is what Dollar General offers? They start off being the place to buy cereal and snacks, but over time its the pizzas and everything else that is pre-packaged. Eating healthy isn’t just expensive, it might not be an option, unless you happen to have a Walmart grocery store in the next town.

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It’s a good development that Dollar General has refrigerators (something I didn’t know). In theory, you can get some good healthy options that are frozen - greens, for instance.

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Socialism will do the trick.
Turning our coutnry into A-MOMica, more like it, amirite??

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As I understand it, two problems come to mind. One is demand, they might offer vegetables but few people buy them. They take prep work and expire quickly, better buying corn in the can.

Two is margin, iirc the margins on processed foods are relatively higher than margins on raw meat and produce. So DG may not really make them a priority unless and until a lot of consumers demand it.

It’s a real problem. Anecdotally, when I go to events in rural Kansas, I very rarely see anything made from scratch with fresh produce. The exception is my BIL and his family. SIL has a garden, it seems to expand every year, they eat fresh vegetables all summer long and she cans what they can’t eat.

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The 34.2% and 28.7% numbers were 2016, when overall was 30%. The 40% number is current (well, 2022).

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The fresh food problem compounds itself when the local grocery options disappear. Walmart might have produce, and it is cheaper, but a large store in one town replaces all the stores in a 20 mile radius. A trip to the store to grab a bag of lettuce is no longer 10 minutes, but an hour+ chore.

Parents cut back on cooking, the skill is lost and never gets passed down to the next generation, and the kids end up eating an even worse diet.

Learning to cook as an adult is expensive - lots of trial and error on the cooking itself, food storage, what things to keep in the pantry, etc. Sure, you can learn a lot online, but where do you even begin?

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What happened in the late 1970s? Microwaves became common?

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Begin by noting that others have done all the trial and error.
Determine what you’re hungry for, or what horde you’re cooking for.
Then, see what you can get at the store.
Then, find a recipe online that is simple (no overnight chilling or special ingredients or special processing of said ingredients). Check the reviews of the recipe for panning or helpful tips.
Then, start cooking.
For actuarial credit, see if it cost more than buying a pre-cooked version.
Like a Costco Chicken. that is way easier and not as complicated as making a nice whole chicken from scratch a la Alton Brown:

Huh, this isn’t the one I have. The one I have has a wet brine sitting for 8-12 hours. THEN, drying off the bird with a fan for two hours or so, so as to make the skin crisp. Working backward, to make my version of the recipe, for a 6PM dinner, one would have to get up by at least 7AM. So, what I’ve done was brine the chicken the day before.

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That doesn’t sound like the place to start for recommendations to someone living in Appalachia living on frozen pizza.

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That’s what happened in Kansas. Walmart exists in larger towns. DG opened stores in smaller towns, and the pressure from both has put local grocers out of business.

Which gets us to what you describe, lots of rural folks who might have a DG near them, but an actual grocer may be 30 miles away.

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What’s not to like?

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I thought rural folk were supposed to grow/raise/slaughter their own food?

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Apparently sugar intake and availability of ultra-processed foods both skyrocketed in the late 70s.

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