[resource_waste]

> The lines at the food banks where I live are much longer than they were before COVID.

what does this really mean? Like food is so cheap we are obese. So does this mean more people want freebies? Tasty brand name foods? My neighbor thought we were poor and gave us food they got from a foodbank, it was really nice (but odd) stuff.

In 2024 I can't really understand using food as a measurement. There is too much.

[btbuildem]

Well, if you can't understand, why such strong opinions?

Read up about basics of nutrition, about how poverty and obesity are correlated, what "food deserts" are, the differences between processed and healthy foods, etc.

[lupire]

Poor people are fat because they don't cook well, not because food is expensive. Good cooking is expensive, and bad cooking is available. Healthy basic cooking is cheap. Food is so cheap that you can eat when you can't afford to anything else! In other words, obesity is cheap entertainment, not a good cost issue.

[resource_waste]

Funny you mention that. Its my expertise.

Food Deserts are defined in a way that is unhelpful, I live in a food desert in one of the richest counties. I have 0 grocery stores within 1 mile. But I have 6 grocery stores within 3 miles.

Go ahead with the conventional sayings: Tell me the fallacious remark about McDoubles being the healthiest cheapest food ever. Go ahead and say something incorrect like processed foods are cheaper than fresh foods. In a few years you are going to change from thinking Fat is the devil to carbs are the devil. Then you will take up fasting, then keto, then gluten free.

People in the US have too much money to care about food. These are people getting dopamine from food pleasure. No one wants to admit it.

[swader999]

I largely agree, but lately eggs, butter, cheese, meat have sure surged ahead in price. They cant really shrinkflate around these items. Even the kids selling eggs as a side hustle in my rural community are jacking their prices.

[mythrwy]

Price of chicken feed is up as well which might explain locally jacked egg prices.

[btbuildem]

No one will push against the claim there's far too many calories available, on average, in Western countries. That consumption is the automatic answer to anything that ails, it could be argued as well.

It reeks of ignorance and obstinate privilege to claim people are too rich to care about food [1] [2], that having to travel 3 miles to get food is not a barrier to access [3] [4]. Saying that processed foods are more expensive than fresh is an outright lie [5][6][7].

The HN discussion forums are one of the last remaining places where we can expect civil and informed online discourse. Please try and keep with that spirit.

1: https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/press-room/53-millio...

2: https://gitnux.org/food-bank-statistics/

3: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/food-bank-use-highest-in-cana...

4: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-are-food-dese...

5: https://foodispower.org/access-health/food-deserts/

6: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9967271/

7: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/healthy-vs-...

8: https://www.aier.org/article/why-unhealthy-food-is-cheap-and...

[resource_waste]

> Saying that processed foods are more expensive than fresh is an outright lie [5][6][7].

This is faux-intellectual. Your sources never even back up your claims.

Low-quality googling and nice formatting won't change reality.

Go check out the website Efficiency Is Everything, that website actually compares foods objectively.