The Observation Deck

This is a pretty interesting piece on the real cost of cheap/fast food:

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 58,00.html

Great article.

It seems like we're so far down the road we're traveling on that it's going to be a huge task to change the habit. Not to mention the conflicts of interest within the FDA etc.

However, huge doesn't equal impossible and I am very happy that more people are making more noise and that in turn more people are taking more action.

Agreed.

I'd recommend reading Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma if you haven't already. It's pretty eye-opening.

I love bacon.

Yep, great article, thanks. Like so many things that we are catching up to, this brings to light an educational factor that is missing. Most people don't know these grissly details.

Our free market system is fantastic, but it's not the wild west anymore either. At the turn of the century, one could buy all manner of snake oil with opiates and cocaine derivatives in it. It made sense for a governing body to say what was good for people and not. I'm not a fan of big government intervention per se, but a nudge in the right direction certainly could help.

Starting with subsidies. If the government (our tax dollars) were to say to farmers, you will still get your booty, but here's what you have to do for it, what would they say? No, I would rather go it alone? Not hardly.

I think it's perfectly okay to get the word out on healthier habits. Not mandatory behavior change, but incentivized. When I was a kid, J. F Kennedy put forth a big push for exercise in public schools. It had some catchy name, but the bottom line was it was influencing, not mandated. Everyone was comfortable with it, because it was voluntary and just made sense. I'm sure a similar campaign could be designed to educate the American consumer, if some big leadership got behind it. Yes, these leaders would have to buck the huge lobbies for beef, pork, etc., but it could be done if the consumer remains the final arbiter of good sense, while given more facts.

imho

"Get Big or Get Out" said Republican Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz 35 years ago to the remaining farmers.
His policies succeeded beyond to scope of the slogan.

was there a food shortage in the 70s? I remember driving down lorain or dennison or madison with older relatives. they'd point out where old restaurants or pizza parlors used to be. was there a shortage of pizza in the 1970s?

Here's what one guy has to say.
http://asymptoticlife.com/2009/08/24/ag ... -news.aspx


many of the old disney and warner brothers short cartoons were set on some kind of farm. While they aren't quite realistic, the cultural frame of reference from which they were drawn is obsolete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV5juFWVjF8

If Disney were alive today he would have to make cartoons about an anthropomorphic illegal immigrant working for a giant agri-corporation feedlot in Colorado or Arkansas. buying cheap amphetamines at mcdonalds parking lot before the 14 hour shift.