Comments on: The Rising Cost of Food, Part 2 of 2 http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/29/the-rising-cost-of-food-part-2-of-2/ Culinary Rants & Raves from Bay Area Foodies and Professionals Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:41:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: brenda http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/29/the-rising-cost-of-food-part-2-of-2/comment-page-1/#comment-46084 brenda Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:18:33 +0000 http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/29/the-rising-cost-of-food-part-2-of-2/#comment-46084 We Americans pay a fraction of what we used to pay for food as percentage of our personal budgets. We've gone from some 30% to now about 12% in the past couple of decades, while many other G-7 nations are still at the 20%+ level. Meanwhile, just as the percentage of our personal budgets spent on food have gone down with factory farming and mass production of foodstuffs, the percentage of our personal budgets spent on health care have ballooned wildly in recent years. I think it would be foolish to think that the two are completely unrelated. We Americans pay a fraction of what we used to pay for food as percentage of our personal budgets. We’ve gone from some 30% to now about 12% in the past couple of decades, while many other G-7 nations are still at the 20%+ level.

Meanwhile, just as the percentage of our personal budgets spent on food have gone down with factory farming and mass production of foodstuffs, the percentage of our personal budgets spent on health care have ballooned wildly in recent years.

I think it would be foolish to think that the two are completely unrelated.

]]> By: Ron Hutzul http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/29/the-rising-cost-of-food-part-2-of-2/comment-page-1/#comment-20102 Ron Hutzul Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:32:23 +0000 http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2008/04/29/the-rising-cost-of-food-part-2-of-2/#comment-20102 The REAL problem is shortsightedness - imagine you've lost your job and putting a meal on the table is a struggle...you've got a choice between allocating a larger percentage of your increasingly scarce budget to buying "good food", or falling into the trap of buying your food "on the cheap" and dealing with the repercussions to your health later on... Spending a greater percentage today, (not necessarily more - which is the point), is going to yield dividend's later on...remember that dealing with your forthcoming health issues is going to be expensive, cause even though you've COBRA'd out, that only lasts so long...it's kind of the "cheaper to keep an existing customer" argument...it's actually LESS expensive to buy good food if you spend less cause it's more fulfilling and has a positive impact on your long-term health and wellness. The REAL problem is shortsightedness – imagine you’ve lost your job and putting a meal on the table is a struggle…you’ve got a choice between allocating a larger percentage of your increasingly scarce budget to buying “good food”, or falling into the trap of buying your food “on the cheap” and dealing with the repercussions to your health later on…

Spending a greater percentage today, (not necessarily more – which is the point), is going to yield dividend’s later on…remember that dealing with your forthcoming health issues is going to be expensive, cause even though you’ve COBRA’d out, that only lasts so long…it’s kind of the “cheaper to keep an existing customer” argument…it’s actually LESS expensive to buy good food if you spend less cause it’s more fulfilling and has a positive impact on your long-term health and wellness.

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