• Thrillhouse@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Canadian commentary:

    I know it’s difficult with corporate greed and price gouging right now, I’m not debating that.

    I’m worried that the food that people gravitate toward is unhealthy, ultra processed and cheaper on purpose. You need to buy MORE of this kind of food to stay full.

    The US has, in my understanding, a lot of food deserts where healthier options are not available and people are pushed to eat empty calories.

    The late-stage capitalist system wears people so thin that the effort to find and cook cheap healthy meals can be overwhelming if you don’t usually do this.

    Portions in North America are HUGE.

    There are ways to eat for cheaper but I understand that takes effort. For example, I order a $23 CDN all in produce box to my door of oddly shaped/sized produce that feeds two adults for a week. The largest box at $49 easily feeds a family of 4. It takes effort to find and locate services like this. Only available in big cities too.

    I guess what I’m trying to say is it seems like the structure of society and capitalism makes the impact of corporate greed RE: groceries SO much worse.

    Not to mention the wars, gas, and housing prices.

    I know a lot of people are low information but since this issue in my perspective is aggravated and accelerated by so many factors, it still baffles me that people accept the solution is more Republican trickle down economics and tariffs which seem like they’re just going to make the problem worse for everyone.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Portions in North America are HUGE.

      The restaraunt portion thing is… a big problem. Here’s what I think is going on.

      I’m pretty sure that it has more to do with profitability than customer demand, although it’s gone on for long enough perhaps it’s both by now. The key here is that food sales have pretty thin margins (except for soft drinks which are outrageously marked-up everywhere). If a restaurant chain suddenly downsized their portion sizes, people would realize very quickly that the price hasn’t scaled down to the same extent, as the current portion sizes are inflated to mask how much food service really costs. There’s a price floor to remain profitable and I think it’s a lot higher than people realize.