[aklemm]

Thinking about this a lot lately. Biggest thing is getting people ready to put in the time needed to process food themselves. Reducing packaging and eating better food takes A LOT of time, and I don't think anyone except the portion of us that like to hunt recipes and cook are ready for that.

[UnFleshedOne]

Basic cooking taking a lot of time is a myth. Sure, if you don't have a kitchen and a fridge at all, that is a problem.

And I suppose if you don't know how to turn on the oven then the whole endeavor looks like marathon running (and winning) looks to a bed-ridden person. But your goal is not to be a professional chief in 5 star restaurant, it is to cook some soup from whatever is in the fridge, boil some pasta, fry some eggs and chop up some greens. Cook enough to last a week and you are set.

Ask your first generation immigrant coworker to teach you what they cook (or ask them to introduce you to their parents :)).

[aklemm]

It is absolutely not a myth. Every convenience you see represents time and "value" added by the food industry making it easier to put food into yourself. Of course it comes at the cost of health and the health of the environment.

Compare a fresh head of broccoli to a package frozen; with fresh, you've got to clean it, trim it, clean up after your trimming, and finally cook it. With frozen, snip a bag open and you're on your way. Much simpler, but of course now you're using something that was shipped from afar, wrapped in plastic, and held in a freezer and it won't even taste as good when you're done!

Now compare ordering delivery from your phone. Compare shopping, storing, chopping, wiping up etc. to building a Blue Apron dinner. In terms of convenience, it's not even close. This is coming form someone who prepares 2-3 meals per day for my family.

[UnFleshedOne]

That's the problem -- you are preparing 2-3 meals a day instead of two big pots once a week and simply reheating them for your meals. At this point time and effort investment starts being significant (you get to eat different freshly cooked food each day so it might be worth it, if that's your preference).

For example it took me 1-2h (including cleanup, but not counting shopping) to prepare 7 liter pot of stew from random veggies and some meat. It will last us whole week in lunches to take to work. Another day we'll make a pot of soup (our old one wasn't done yet) and that would be all dinners for a week. Takes 3 minutes to reheat each day, no delivery can beat that, unless you live above fast food place or something.