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Sayre Weir

By SAYRE WEIR

Growing up in a household of bargain-hunters taught me how to get the most bang for my buck on our bi-weekly trips to the grocery store. When I tagged along with my dad, he insisted I pack a pencil and scrap paper, and each trip turned into a ^[2]Saturday math class. By age six, I traded the pencil and paper for a calculator, increasing the time efficiency in addition to the cost efficiency of our trip.

My brothers and I competed to find the bag of frozen potatoes with the least price per spud, and the winner was awarded with his or her choice of dessert. One Saturday I was the first to find the cheapest bag of frozen potatoes, but little did I know that my prize-winning taters were produced in Idaho, while the Davidson Farmers’ Market had a stand of slightly more expensive but locally grown potatoes right across the street.

As Americans, we expect our food to be cheap, and we expect to dedicate minimal time into food preparation. However, these expectations are taking a toll on our health. As middle class Americans, we must dish out the extra dollar and carve out the extra minutes to invest more time and money into our diets. These changes are imperative if we seek to decrease obesity and other health-related risks associated with the rise of the cheap fast-food industry.

As Mark Bittman reminds us in “Cheap, Cheap Food,” ^[3] Americans expend a far lower proportion of incomes on food than do people of other nationalities. We spend less than 6 percent of our earnings on groceries, a statistic so low that we dish out an additional 4 percent for restaurant dining. The USDA reports that the Japanese spend 16 percent of their incomes on food, the Germans spend 17 percent, and developing countries invest even more of their earnings on their diet; Indians spend nearly half of their incomes on food. Minimizing food costs means more money for other purposes, like technology and entertainment. The fast-paced lifestyle of the stereotypical American family encourages not only the expectation of inexpensive food, but also the demand for convenient, ready-to-eat meals.

Minimizing food preparation time translates to more time for other pursuits; 20 minutes saved from scrubbing our store-bought potatoes means 20 extra minutes at work or at the gym. Our American obsession with efficiency and getting the most bang for our buck is epitomized in our food system: We seek to minimize time and expenses related to food.

Our growing expectation of inexpensive prepared food is related to an increase in health problems. The burgeoning presence of fast-food contributes significantly to the rise of American obesity and health issues such as diabetes and heart disease. The more hours a mother works in one week is directly related to the greater probability of her raising an overweight child. Along with swinging through the drive-thru for dinner, another popular means of reducing food preparation time is the invention of the microwave and the rise of frozen meals. Cheap processed foods have contributed to an obesity epidemic that has grown in the span of a single generation, and left three in five Americans now overweight.

Items found on the dollar menus of fast-food restaurants include cheap meat, generally higher in saturated and trans fats. Since 1980, 31 percent of Americans have become identified as obese, while another staggering 34 percent are overweight. Only one hundred years ago, Americans spent approximately half of their income and considerable time preparing food. We must forget the drive-thru model, toss our quick TV dinners, and spend more time and money in preparing healthier foods for our families if we seek to halt cheap fast-food induced health epidemics.

The first step is to re-prioritize our expenditures by dedicating more money and time to purchasing and preparing local, sustainably grown foods. Simply spending more money on food is not the solution to the health problem. As middle class Americans, we must make more of an effort to invest our personal energy into consciously planning, purchasing, and preparing healthy food for ourselves and for our families. We may have to sacrifice an hour at the office, but we must consider our diet a long-term investment. Benefits include fewer health complications and bestowing healthy lifestyle habits in the minds of future generations. So, I challenge you to get off the computer, leave the office or gym a few minutes early, and plan the healthy balanced meal YOU want to eat for dinner.

Sayre Weir of Davidson is a sophomore at Middlebury College. She wrote this as an assignment for a course on Food Geographies.

REFERENCES

Akst, Daniel. “Cheap Eats.” ^[3] 3rd ed. Vol. 27. N.p.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, n.d. The Wilson Quarterly. JStor, Summer 2003. Web. 9 Oct. 2012. .

April 30, 2008, New York Times, “Our Cheap, Cheap Food,” ^[4]  by Mark Bittman, Mark.

Dec. 5, 2007, New York Times, “A High Price for Healthy Food,” ^[5] by Tara Parker-Pope.