Why is Price more Important Than Quality or Safety When It Comes To Our Food?


This was yet another question presented in The Omnivore's Dilemma (I'm finally almost finished). We as a consuming nation presented with Wal*Mart's to offer Everyday Low Prices, have become so obsessed with price we have turned a blind eye to the nature of our food. As Pollan points out:

"Our food system depends on consumers' not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing."

This ignorance is how people are able to accept buying meat that comes from large CAFO's where the animals are treated inhumanely and pumped full of corn and drugs. I'm working on a "Factory Fresh" label I would like to put on some random meat packages at the local grocery store. Or, "Our meat has more drugs than Major League Baseball". Or even "Caged For Your Convenience". They are still a work in progress(:

Although price is often what consumers claim keeps them from buying healthy and local food, as Pollan also mentions, its often that people choose not to buy better food because they choose to spend their money elsewhere. Pollan suggests we spend one fifth of our income on food, down from one tenth in the 1950's. Instead of choosing local or organic food, Americans today are spending their money on items such as expensive electronics and cell phones. All other nations spend more of their income on food. Does that mean we are lucky? Hardly. Our cheap food is a direct result of subsidies and unsustainable agricultural practices. We may pay less at the checkout, but we pay more through taxes, health costs, pollution, and ethics.

I'm amazed at how many people do more research buying a television via Consumer Reports and flyers than their own food. We really need to get our priorities straight.