Reply to Why don’t Americans give a f*** about what they eat?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And we work much longer hours than most European countries. And in most South American countries, household help is the norm for even middle class families. So they do rely less on convenience foods. Convenience foods are ubiquitous here because they are cheap and fast and our work/life balance is out of alignment.   [/quote]

As someone from Latin America I would just caution you against romanticizing a system based on extreme income inequality. There is a reason the tiny middle class can afford household help. It's not something you want to replicate here.[/quote]

This is a good point and many countries can afford these lunch ladies who cook fresh lunches because the wage rates are so depressed for service workers.  In other countries, it’s because people pay very high tax rates.  [b]Either would require a major shift in American culture and policy.[/b]  It would also require major physical plant renovations in most schools which is unrealistic considering taxpayers won’t even pay for functioning a/c in public schools.  
If it’s still available, the Jamie Oliver show where he tried to reform school lunches in a West Virginia community was really interesting.  That was maybe 15 years ago.  He did something similar in Britain with some success but was not very successful here.  There are articles about it, but the cost was one major problem.  
[/quote]
These are great points, especially the bolded. I think that's why I thought Michelle Obama's initial focus on reforming school lunch was so quietly radical. Not surprising that it morphed into "Let's Move" (essentially going from systemic change to personal responsibility) when Barack was up for re-election.

As hard as it would be to reform our food system, I think it's what's desperately needed in this country. Aside from public health, there are so many negative impacts of our current system. The high degree of centralization makes it efficient but extremely brittle and vulnerable to disruptions (see how hard it was to shift supply chains last year). Many of the agricultural practices we use are absolutely terrible for the environment and unlikely to be sustainable in the face of climate change. The food system's labor practices are abhorrent, and at least some people think that the undocumented immigration associated with it is a national security risk (I think it's more complicated than that).

This issue is often presented as one of health/well-being and personal priorities, but it's not. It's an indication of a deep sickness in our culture and policy.[/quote]

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