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Chart of the Week: Is food too cheap for our own good?
Pew Research Center ^ | 5/23/2014 | Drew DeSilver

Posted on 05/26/2014 6:09:15 AM PDT by EBH

As you scarf down burgers and potato salad this long Memorial Day weekend, consider this: Americans have the cheapest food in history, and that unprecedented abundance is largely responsible for why we’re so fat.

According to a new article in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, Americans in the 1930s spent a quarter of their disposable income on food. That share has fallen steadily through the decades, to the point where today less than 10% of Americans’ disposable dollars go for food. (That varies across income groups, of course: The poorest 20% of Americans still spend about a third of their disposable income on food.)

And even as the real cost of food goes down, each dollar we spend buys us more calories than it used to. The average American’s total caloric intake (adjusted for spoilage and other waste) rose from 2,109 calories in 1970 to 2,568 calories in 2010, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data — the equivalent of an extra steak sandwich every day.

(Excerpt) Read more at pewresearch.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: brainwash; food; foodprices; inflation; propaganda
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Tick-tock goes the inflation clock and the propaganda spin. Gee Pew Research, why are you comparing today's income expenditure for food to those of the depression era 1930's?

Trying to soften the blow of runaway food inflation couched in claims of obesity?

1 posted on 05/26/2014 6:09:15 AM PDT by EBH
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To: EBH

Wait a minute. I thought gazillions of ‘mericans go to bed hungry every night.


2 posted on 05/26/2014 6:11:56 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: EBH

What you said is true…I would also add the organic, free range and grass fed type proteins are much LESS FATTENING than the cheaper stuff…..so the whole notion of too cheap = obesity is absurd. If food prices were lower, people could more easily afford the better proteins.


3 posted on 05/26/2014 6:11:58 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Do NOT suffer fools gladlyÂ…and message boards are full contact arenas)
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To: EBH

Yup... They are planning to write “How fortunate that Obama is President. Food used to be too cheap!” as soon as soon as the misery index goes up another notch.


4 posted on 05/26/2014 6:12:53 AM PDT by MNDude
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To: EBH
The poorest 20% of Americans still spend about a third of their disposable income on food.

And they're the fattest Americans in America.

5 posted on 05/26/2014 6:13:46 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: EBH

Gonna have to tax it for our own good like tobacco.


6 posted on 05/26/2014 6:14:09 AM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin.)
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To: EBH

so making food unaffordable is good because we will all lose weight?


7 posted on 05/26/2014 6:14:14 AM PDT by silverleaf (Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
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To: C. Edmund Wright

I’m not so sure they would choose it though...?


8 posted on 05/26/2014 6:16:43 AM PDT by EBH (And the head wound was healed, and Gog became man.)
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To: EBH
And even as the real cost of food goes down,

WTF??? What is this guy smoking?

9 posted on 05/26/2014 6:16:50 AM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (I live in NJ....' Nuff said!)
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Comment #10 Removed by Moderator

To: EBH

True with some and false with some - but not relevant to the point I was making…..I’m attacking the faulty thesis, not predicting mass behavior. Their thesis if wrong period.


11 posted on 05/26/2014 6:17:58 AM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (Do NOT suffer fools gladlyÂ…and message boards are full contact arenas)
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To: EBH
Progressives long for their Glory Days.



12 posted on 05/26/2014 6:22:26 AM PDT by Bratch
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To: Texas Eagle

Well, remember the whole food desert thing, in which Michelle Obama decries the lack of full service supermarkets in ghetto areas. So the poor have to eat chips and dips and snack/junk foods according to her theory.


13 posted on 05/26/2014 6:22:39 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego (et)
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To: MRourke85

No, look at the premise of the comparison they made...

Depression era food cost expenditures to today. It is an unrealistic comparison meant to cause confusion for those who don’t know history or recognize the era being used.

So they instill the thought that food is too cheap compared to what Grandma/Grandpa spent to obtain food.

Huge food inflation is coming and this is an early harbinger warning prepping the uneducated fools to accept their forced weight loss so 0bamacare becomes affordable. They are getting ready to starve Americans on a mass scale.


14 posted on 05/26/2014 6:23:42 AM PDT by EBH (And the head wound was healed, and Gog became man.)
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To: EBH

Obviously a candidate for the most absurd headline ever written - as if such a thing were even possible.


15 posted on 05/26/2014 6:24:04 AM PDT by major-pelham
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To: silverleaf

If they were so ‘concerned’ about our health and waistlines, Cheetos would cost ten bucks a bag and lettuce would be a nickel a head. And tell the Department of AgriNazis to keep their filthy paws off my cheese steak, the damn dirty apes!


16 posted on 05/26/2014 6:25:22 AM PDT by Viking2002 (Liberals - destroyers of both men and civilizations. The Fourth Turning Cometh.)
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To: MRourke85
If I knew how to post a chart, I would do it.
<img src="http://www.pewresearch.org/files/2014/05/food_expenditure.png" width="50%">

Fight the Free Sh☭t Nation
I, for one, welcome our new Cybernetic Overlords /.

17 posted on 05/26/2014 6:31:47 AM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (<= Mash name for HTML Xampp PHP C JavaScript primer. Programming for everyone.)
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To: EBH

It seems to me there are “facts” in this article that maybe aren’t. I wish I only spent 10% of income on food. That figure could be right,but will depend on the income figure it’s based on. “Disposable income” needs to be a little better defined,too.


18 posted on 05/26/2014 6:36:10 AM PDT by oldtech
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To: EBH

No…food is very cheap for the obese Poor. They all have SNAP cards and can load up on groceries on the taxpayers’ dime. Meanwhile, decent hamburger is $5/lv. now for the tax drone who is financing the obese Poor. That is not cheap.


19 posted on 05/26/2014 6:38:03 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: EBH

Pew Trying to get us all to feel guilty about living a decent lifestyle. Kiss my grits and pass the ribs.


20 posted on 05/26/2014 6:42:53 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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