[swatcoder]

> Based on the percent of people who were able to do it before there were fast food restaurants everywhere, I think people will manage to figure it out.

A good lot of the people from that time are dead and they become fewer every day. Meanwhile, their children, who grew up since then, have radically different baseline expectations about what a meal should taste like, how big it should be, how filling it should be, how convenient it should be, etc

It’s very different to recall the habits of a received culture than it is to adopt a new culture that is completely alien.

In some post-apocalypse, of course people will figure this stuff out, but expecting that to happen just because of incidental market relationships in an otherwise healthy economy is a fantasy.

It takes the passion of a wellness geek or absolute desperation to throw away all your preconceptions about how you’ve related to food your whole life. It doesn’t just happen because prices crept up a little here or sank a little there.

[lotsofpulp]

I disagree. After a few missed meals, people will be willing to try all different kinds of food, even if they have to put a pot or pan on the stove. That’s just biology.