Two tiers of food quality?
I know there has always been a high end of the food market. Those people who can afford truffles and caviar but this post isn’t about these people. I’m talking about the difference between eating healthy foods and those who would love to eat healthy but can’t afford to.
A friend of mine would love to serve only organic foods to her family. She’d love to buy free range chickens that have no residual antibiotics or hormones and she’d feel better about eating eggs from chickens not kept in battery cages. Sadly, for her, buying food like this isn’t in her budget.
She shops at the discount stores where you bag your own groceries and everything in the store has a preservative filled shelf life similar to that of a Hostess Twinkie – pretty much forever. The other day I stopped by to visit just as she was getting home with sacks full of food for this week. I have to say from my perspective, it didn’t look all that bad, although much of what she bought had black and white labels and there were lots of pretty unhealthy looking snacks for the kids. I asked her where the fruit was and she said she just can’t afford it any more so the only fruit she buys is in a tin can.
I worry that her situation and that of many others is just the beginning of two tiers of food quality. For those who don’t have lots of money to spend on food, they’ll end up eating all the trans fat filled foods. I know, she could make her own cakes and cookies and crackers and everything else, but as a single mother of 3 kids who has a physically tiring job, she doesn’t have the time. As she says, “I can mow the lawn, do the laundry, help the kids with their homework, clean the house and cook dinner or I can bake.”
It’s not that I want the farmers and bakers to earn less because I know that’s a tough job too, but where will it all end? Will we end up with a large proportion of the population not able to afford healthy food? Is that the world we want to live in? It’s all too easy to say “let them eat cake” or get a better job because we all know it’s not possible for most of them to get a much higher paying job.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:31 am
This has been a problem I have noticed for the past few years and even more recently as more friends have jumped on the *eat healthy* bandwagon. You know…as more information comes out and is dispelled, the more educated people become. The more educated people become about what is healthy, the more they are willing to try “the healthy.”
The problem is that it’s so cost-prohibitive for many of them. So much cheaper now to buy the snacks and trans-fats and the estrogen-filled milk and the anti-biotic laden eggs than to spend what…23% more on the healthier alternatives? Not to mention with the ever-increasing gas prices and the insanity of a gallon of milk or anything else to begin with.
It’s insanity. I frankly don’t know how we’re pulling it off. As time continues on, though, I sense more and more people less able to pull it off.
July 12th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I used to feel the same way. Instead of being trapped, I decided to do something about it. Anybody can raise their income if they know how to do it. I did it part time until I was able to quit my “slave” job and bring in the kind of paycheck that my family deserved. I spend less time working now and I make more money. I am no longer a victim of my circumstances. I enjoy good health and have the time to spend with my family instead of working myself to death making my boss rich.Read my story at http://jeffiversen.com
July 12th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Hi Jeff, I do agree that many people CAN bring themselves out of poverty or low income situations but many cannot. A lot of people have trouble with language or math and really can’t pull themselves up like you have done so well. Congratulations! While what you have done is wonderful, I don’t think it’s an option for those people who struggle from day to day with no real way to significantly improve their finances.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:04 am
At one time,I struggled day to day to meet expenses. I worked 12 hours a day in a factory. I ate beans and rice and peanut butter sandwiches. A girl I work with was a single mother of six with over $100,000 in debt. Now she is out of debt and makes a six figure income. It just depends on how bad you want to get out of the ditch you are in. You say there is “no real way to significantly improve their finances.” I wonder how much of that incapacity is real and how much is imagined? I wonder how much of it is self imposed? Maybe some of it is just a lack of knowledge?
My best friend has a debilitating disease that eats away at her joints, causing much pain and fatigue. She works 12 hours a day driving a school bus and yet finds time to work a few extra hours per week in order to bring in an extra $500 per month. That is pretty significant for her. She can’t afford organic food either. But at least she is doing something about her situation. What does she have that others don’t have? Drive, ambition, hope or a dream? I think the biggest thing that she has is the knowledge of how to overcome her limitations. Without this knowledge, there is no hope. Without someone to teach me, I never would have made it either. Now it is my turn to give back. I can’t help those who don’t want help or don’t believe they can be helped.
One of the best books that I have ever read on this subject is called “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” by Robert Kiyosaki. He and his wife were actually living in his car at one point. That was their home. Now he is a multi-millionaire who teaches others how to change their mind about how they look at money. Check it out sometime.
July 13th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Jeff, I think we’re talking about different kinds of people. There are uneducated, unmotivated and some people have no confidence and some people who are dumber than a box of rocks. If someone was sewing t-shirts in a factory and they think it’s a great job, I don’t think this person could do what you’ve done. If they are content with doing the same thing over and over and over and over.. you get my point.. they wouldn’t have the software upstairs I don’t think.
Now unmotivated and uneducated and perhaps some with no confidence could really do well with your program. I’ve read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and I think there’s heaps of good information in there. Some people who’ve worked for me in the past couldn’t possibly read that book. They’d just stare at the pages wondering where the pictures were.
I know that sounds harsh and I don’t mean it to be.
My point is still that there are a lot of people who will be doing menial jobs because frankly someone’s got to do them. If the pay scales didn’t have such a wide gap between the top and the bottom, life would be very different for many people.
July 13th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I used to have this problem where I thought like your friend – I thought the unhealthy food was all we could afford. (And it really does seem that way!) I had to completely overhaul my shopping habits and change everything we eat…but now I am spending less on groceries than before and we are eating healthier now than ever. It’s not easy, but it can be done!
July 13th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
um… not everybody who is poor or who does menial work is an idiot. I happen to be a “poor” t-shirt printer who also happens to have a 120+ IQ. Contentment is not a crime, nor is a desire to spend more time at home or with the family rather than at work, but I do believe that government subsidies to those who manufacture deadly foods is.
I think people can still “live” decently and pay their bills on a lower income, but sacrifices do have to be made. If a decision is made to eat healthier foods, then maybe the cable or another luxury would have to go. Instead of feeding your video game or TV addicted kid boxed mac and cheese because it’s “all you can afford”, why don’t you eBay the game, cancel the cable, feed the kid something healthy with some energy value, and make them go outside and play.
Americans have a strange sense of what is means to “go without” or to “not have a choice.” Even our poorest citizens live like kings compared to much of the world’s population. So, at present, I don’t consider ourselves to be in as much of a food or energy crisis as many people are making it out to be.
I think many food choices are based on priorities. There are a lot of people who have the means to eat better who won’t, and there are those who are a lot less “educated” and who make less money who’ve chosen to to eat better. Even at my poorest, I never set foot in one of those bag or box it yourself discount stores.
I’m sorry, the number of people who cry poor, yet are so wasteful, just ticks me off. I’m not saying your friend is numbered amongst them, it sounds like she has her hands full with the 3 kids.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Hparis, You’re absolutely right and I should have included that category in my response to Jeff. What you’re talking about is the growing trend of making a better quality of life while ensuring that you make a smaller footprint on the environment.
My friend is trying to do her part and she likes her job but it doesn’t pay enough to buy organic food for a family of four and that’s what she’d like to do.
July 14th, 2008 at 9:21 am
This is an excellent post, and it reiterates what I have thought for years. There is a stereotypical assumption that because “poor” people are “fat,” they are spending their welfare checks on soda and cakes instead of healthy foods. Poor people are fat because the healthy food is so overprices and beyond their budget that they are left eating all the high-fructose corn syrup in the processed foods!
Quality food has ALWAYS been expensive. What we all seemed to have lost sight of is growing our own food.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
very good point. the cost of eating healthy is skyrocketing… I’ve cut back other things to make sure the kids always have fresh fruit.
July 17th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Don’t blame the farmers. They struggle to make a living, because the mega-corporations that make most of the packaged food products sold in the US keep payouts to farms as low as possible.
You’re right to note that we are becoming a “two tier” food nation. Even two branches of the same supermarket chains are known to carry different brands [of different quality?] in each store. Incredibly, food in stores located in “less-than-desirable” neighborhoods frequently charge more for their products than “nicer” communities’ stores. Can’t the FDA do something about this?
-MR