Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Foods such as $2.50 frozen pizzas seem like a deal, but in fact hide a very real and very expensive cost: detrimental effects on the environment and our health. These external costs may not appear on your grocery bill or drive-thru receipt, but still we bear their effects on a day-to-day basis.
So what are these external costs and what creates them?
Cost: Obesity. Cause: Farm bill subsidies.
The majority of subsidies distributed by the farm bill are put into the pockets of large, commercial farms growing commodity crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat. Rather than help maintain a balanced agricultural economy, the government pays by bushels produced, keeping prices low and encouraging overproduction.
What to do then with all the extra corn, soybeans and wheat? Simply look at the ingredients list of most processed foods, from cereal to soda, chips to Hamburger Helper. You’ll likely find a derivative of these commodity crops there. These cheap, subsidy endorsed add-ons allow food producers to sell their high-calorie, high-fat, high-cholesterol foods at incredibly low prices.
Meanwhile, farmers who grow fresh produce have received hardly any assistance. Although waistline-widening fast foods and junk foods get cheaper and cheaper, vegetables and fruits become more and more expensive.
Cost: Air and water pollution. Cause: Industrial food production.
Commodity crops such as corn and soy are also very resource intensive crops, meaning that they require large amounts of water and chemical fertilizers to grow. Born out of fossil fuels, these chemical fertilizers are a double whammy on the environment: First it releases greenhouse gases (POW!) and then the chemical run-off pollutes both soil and water (WA-POW!)
We have agricultural run-off to thank for that.
Though this kind of environmental degradation is occurring, many of us continue to eat industrially produced food. Why? Because it’s easy to simply turn off your computer or TV, ignore the pollution and chomp into a $1 cheeseburger.
— Janie Chen is a junior from Olathe. Her sustainability blog can be read at www.greenmyguy.wordpress.com.
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Comments
Blog: Green my guy
Joe Rogan's Theory on Life and People by irsekz
What if he's right...
Blog: Green my guy
but I like that $2.50 frozen pizza and don't have enough money for anything else........
Eating "environmentally correct" foods costs extra money, and as much as I care about the environment I can't always afford to shop at the Merc.
Blog: Green my guy
Eating unprocessed foods ends up being much cheaper in the long run than their processed counterparts. The ...process... of processing adds to the overall cost of a food per ounce in more ways than just nutrition and environmental impact.
As college students we run into difficulties eating in the ideal manner prescribed above because we cannot generally buy in bulk due to limited space and the fact that we are generally serving for one.
A student who can prepare his or her food from scratch and eat it before it spoils will be able to save a lot of money compared to someone who buys processed foods. Take the subsidies out of the equation and this is the case to an even greater extent.
There are tons of resources and blogs on the internet devoted to people in our eating situation. It isn't inexcusable to always eat processed foods, it's just kind of lazy.
Blog: Green my guy
@ sjschlag: You should check out my other post on how to shop at the Merc while on a budget
http://greenmyguy.wordpress.com/2009/11/15/eating-sustainably-without-breaking-the-bank/
@ connerm: I agree, we don't see the hidden costs of processed foods because government subsidies and big industry hide it so well. If you find any really good resources or blogs, let me know! I'd love to learn more!
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