Poverty and Diet

[Konfusius]

Hi,
while I do see a correlation between income level and education and/or nutrition, what you have to bear in mind is that the "I can't afford to..." a lot of times is (ab)used as an excuse to not buy healthier stuff (healthier for both the people and the planet). To me it occurs to be a mere question of choice, as is so much in this experience - you can chose to live on organic food, while a lot of times (of course there would be exceptions) people will complain about not having sufficient money for proper food, while at the same time using the latest model of smartphone or
gaming console or other gadgetry which are unnecessary to live a "good" live but are means to deflect peer pressure.

If you set your mind to it, you will soon realise ways of maximising what you can do with the little means you have, especially when considering, for example, buying in bulk (15kg of organic rice drop the per-kilo price for same by a whopping 50%).

"Taste" is in this regard no argument, as you put your acquainted taste above effects and impact on other people, the planet and the environment. Unless you think that the "food" you get at non-organic fastfood chains is a fair trade-off for rainforest deforestation, GMO establishment, and forced work / slavery, this is self-explanatory in my eyes. What some people seem to forget is that their physical vehicles are not the only ones affected - just think of the poor people working on those non-organic farms. There is this beautiful footage of the "illegal immigrant" in Spain, working his bones off at the massive vegetable farm, where he is walking barefooted and without any protection, spraying herbicides and pesticides. When buying these products, what you're saying is "I agree with what you're doing, please go ahead and do as you do, I sanction it with my life time" (as, if you truncate the whole story, you're paying with life time, which you spent on "making money") - "every dollar is a choice, as the saying goes.


There is, additionally, loads of examples on the internet with people living on small money but with a fully vegan-organic diet, again, the question is: What's your priorities. Switching to whole-food additionally adds nutritional value - i.e. wholegrain rice makes you filled for much longer than white rice, same goes for pasta or flour/bread (I just took a roasted onion whole-wheat loaf out of the oven. 2kg of organic bread, which has cost around 50 cents all in all and last for a week for two). It might take some time to get acquainted to the organic wholefood taste, but taste is socialised in the first place (i.e. a question of "what you're used to" as opposed to a natural state of perception) but once you are and you listen to your body, you wouldn't want to switch back any more, really (white pasta tastes quite
ridiculous to us by now).

In terms of "healthy is for the rich", as OP assumes, my thoughts go toward that while there are, of course, the so called LOHAs with their "double
income, no kids" situation (where one should be glad they spent it on a low carbon footprint stuff and healthy food as opposed to porches and what have you), there is also the other side of the coin, with low income families spending all the money on good nutrition. You might have to never go on vacation, but, in my opinion, this is very well worth it, given your decision is the one that causes the least negative impact on planet/environment/people/animals. I am just a starter in the learning of what Ra have told us, but it has the benefit of having it fresh in the mind. I think, there would be a reason it is called "service to OTHERS". "My taste does not allow to consider affected people and the harm I cause" doesn't sound very positive to me. From a sociology standpoint of view, though, politics and policy-based structural building do play a role, as, for example, there a literal food-deserts, especially in the USA, where people are structurally cut of of supplies for vegetables/fruit by the architecture of regions (regions you can't leave without a car for populations financially unable to afford same, especially for minorities). There have been quite interesting studies on this, but I don't have the stuff from University to my disposition any more and it's too long ago I read this...

In the end, the question is do you pay now - with money - (for good, healthy, nutritious food) or do you now live of foodlike substances, junk"food", and, in the long term run, pay with medical bills, deteriorating health and potentially not being able to enjoy your life do to the physical suffering you might face. Organic, vegan and fair-trade based living is, to cut the long story short, a win-win-win situation, even though it might be tough to do it at times...

So much for a first post in this forum

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Edit: To avoid double-posting
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Ye probably know this nice little summary image already...