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How is the food industry supposed to grow if we stop becoming more and more obese?

by pygy_ 9y ago

quickthrower2 9y ago
If we eat better food that is more sustainable the food industry will do well. You replace the giant producers with lots of small farms. People pay more for food per calorie, but balanced out by fewer calories. The food mafia won't like this though so they'll lobby for laws to avoid it.
- pygy_ 9y ago
  I'm actually in the process of founding a small farm :-) I tend to conflate the food industry with the food mafia though, and I'm highly skeptical of the long term prospects of civilization if we pursue our growth-based economy. Resources on earth are finite, efficiency can't rise past (or approach) 100%, and the amount of entropy we generate today is already too high for the rest of the biosphere, leading to its collapse.
richardknop 9y ago
By focusing on healthy food with higher margin. That could cause people to eat less and be thinner and food companies would keep their revenues because margin would be higher (think free range eggs, chicken that lived outside in good conditions instead of horrible food factories where they are treated horribly).
- pygy_ 9y ago
  I actually hope we get there :-) but it would mean that people would have to spend a higher share of their income on food. When it comes to stripping people of their cash, the competition is fierce, and we humans are usually not very good at long term thinking. Guilt- and shame-based marketing is not very effective (boasting health/societal benefits is indirectly guilt tripping people), less than hey look at this shiny $product that would make you sooo cool among your peers. Shiny! Buy now! And don't get me started on addiction-based products, like junk food (or screen-based products, be them games or serial TV shows).
  - richardknop 9y ago
    I mean government would need to subsidize food for poor people. Large parts of population today rely on cheap food (prepackaged meals or fast food) because they can't really afford higher quality more expensive food. So government would need to subsidize healthy food similar to the way it is subsidizing green energy (electric cars for example). And probably tax fast food so that kind of business becomes unprofitable.

How is the food industry supposed to grow if we stop becoming more and more obese?

by pygy_ 9y ago

How is the food industry supposed to grow if we stop becoming more and more obese?

If we eat better food that is more sustainable the food industry will do well. You replace the giant producers with lots of small farms. People pay more for food per calorie, but balanced out by fewer calories. The food mafia won't like this though so they'll lobby for laws to avoid it.

pygy_ 9y ago
I'm actually in the process of founding a small farm :-) I tend to conflate the food industry with the food mafia though, and I'm highly skeptical of the long term prospects of civilization if we pursue our growth-based economy. Resources on earth are finite, efficiency can't rise past (or approach) 100%, and the amount of entropy we generate today is already too high for the rest of the biosphere, leading to its collapse.

richardknop 9y ago

By focusing on healthy food with higher margin. That could cause people to eat less and be thinner and food companies would keep their revenues because margin would be higher (think free range eggs, chicken that lived outside in good conditions instead of horrible food factories where they are treated horribly).

pygy_ 9y ago
I actually hope we get there :-) but it would mean that people would have to spend a higher share of their income on food. When it comes to stripping people of their cash, the competition is fierce, and we humans are usually not very good at long term thinking. Guilt- and shame-based marketing is not very effective (boasting health/societal benefits is indirectly guilt tripping people), less than hey look at this shiny $product that would make you sooo cool among your peers. Shiny! Buy now! And don't get me started on addiction-based products, like junk food (or screen-based products, be them games or serial TV shows).
- richardknop 9y ago
  I mean government would need to subsidize food for poor people. Large parts of population today rely on cheap food (prepackaged meals or fast food) because they can't really afford higher quality more expensive food. So government would need to subsidize healthy food similar to the way it is subsidizing green energy (electric cars for example). And probably tax fast food so that kind of business becomes unprofitable.