[krapp]

We didn't forget. It would just be expensive, and Americans simply don't want their hard-earned tax dollars to pay to feed other people's kids, so schools have to resort to cheap solutions. It took radical activism (mostly by the black community and groups like the black panthers) just to get school lunches to begin with, and Republicans/Conservatives have been trying to tear it down ever since.

[dopidopHN]

I get your US context. That’s a handful. Thanks for providing that ( irony : 0% )

I just want to play devils advocate on the cost : How would be paying people minimum wage to batch cook food from scratch with local produce be more expensive ?

We did that for centuries without conserve, fridge and NPK to grow our food.

We now have access to cheap energy ( historically speaking ) and a variety of preservation methods. That should be considerably easier.

( and in fact i think it is, I’m in Quebec now, public hospitals switched to cook all their food on the same budget as previously frozen crap. A lot of French municipality are doing the same. Basically you have to pay the yearly salary of à cook, some gardener and a CPA to handle what can’t be grow ( 50% )

A frozen hotdog is pretty expensive for what it really is.

Question : how would be our Republicans friends do lunch for schools? Every kids bring a box ?

[krapp]

>How would be paying people minimum wage to batch cook food from scratch with local produce be more expensive ?

Local produce is more expensive, as is cooking from scratch[0]. Another problem is that won't scale. You can't feed millions of kids twice a day every weekday from the local farmers' market.

[0] https://www.vox.com/videos/2018/3/22/17152460/healthy-eating...

> how would be our Republicans friends do lunch for schools? Every kids bring a box ?

Make them pay for it. If they can't pay, they don't eat.

[dopidopHN]

Thanks for the vox link, I can’t load it now, I’m traveling and have no bandwidth.

I’m ready to change my mind once I’m reaching a wifi.

In interval :

how did we do it for millenniums before frozen carbs?

Random: Let’s say the Roman army. Ok. They were relying on canned food a lot. ( garnum )

But for sure they were not eating frozen hotdog

[krapp]

>how did we do it for millenniums before frozen carbs?

We didn't. Child mortality was higher, populations were smaller, life expectancy was lower and malnutrition and starvation were more common.

Our current population size is the direct result of post-industrial farming and food production making calories easily available to the masses, and all kinds of foods accessible year-round.

But again, the problem isn't modern processed food, which can be perfectly healthy, it's an unwillingness to fund school lunches enough to provide more than cheap, empty calories.

[dopidopHN]

> Our current population size is the direct result of post-industrial farming and food production making calories easily available to the masses, and all kinds of foods accessible year-round.

Absolutely. Post WW2 food production with NPK intrants and machineries changed how we grow food. ( thanks Bayers ! )

But it’s hardly the sole factor and I would not be surprise if it was not the main driver of multiplication.

Medecine & Basic hygiene also went a long way. As well as the great convenience of bottled energy to move things arounds for cheap.

But I think we talk about a bunch of stuff at once here.

For instance I did not mention biologic produce.

Just … cooking food in a large communal kitchens with large kitchen equipment. The kind where you can cook for 50 people at once.

As opposed to : complex industrial process to build a hot pocket or a frozen breakfast burrito.

One is something most people can be trained to do, and the other needs a team of engineers to design, and another team to build the factory and another to run it.

( watching your vox link )

Oh. Ok. Yeah. I find that part relevant

> But the US government also doesn’t subsidize leafy vegetable crops in the same way it supports wheat, soy, and corn, vital ingredients in a lot of junk food.

I think it says it all. Why is the US government meddling with the market? I live in the Us as well: We don’t pay the real price of food. Yeah produce are labors intensive. But a lot of crap food has hidden cost that should be factored in. ( but that’s yet another topic :) )

To summarize, I find it hard to smallow that buying a frozen product that flew to you and is the result of a complex industrial process is cheaper than whatever grow with sunlight, a hour of care a day and some water.

[zo1]

I don't get this. Food is ridiculously cheap when buying/cooking bulk. Cooking in bulk for 500+ students is doable but just needs some dedicated effort, dedicated machinery and investment, and some pre processing that you could certainly outsource to your local community. It's amazingly win win in so many ways.