Everyone seems to criticize the food industry for continually promoting food that is high in fat, sodium and sugar. But, what I would argue is that the food industry is simply behaving just like any other corporate citizen whose fundamental goal is to add value to the stockholder. Guess what - fat, sodium and sugar are what the vast majority of people crave for. Hence, for any demand there will be a supply. And yes, the food industry does make that supply very efficiently and cheap. Thats why you find sugar, salt and fat based foods generally much cheaper than healthy alternatives. Its simply because, they have made the production process for those food types extremely efficient at extremely high volumes. In fact, one can argue the production of meats is now a continuous flow process rather than a assembly line process.
So what is wrong with this picture? Well, the food industry should not be allowed to lie to the consumer and trick them to thinking that these foods types are good for us. Also, our government needs to take an active role in promoting healthy alternatives and a healthy life style such that the demand for healthy food types is greater. This in turn will cause the industry to respond which then drops the price which then creates even greater demand. Hence a self reinforcing process to make the world a healthier world.
So here is the bottom line - Each of us needs to opt for healthier foods. As we do so, our problems with the food industry will disappear.
