Maybe I'm just ignorant, but I find it hard to believe that the cost of healthy food is a terrible problem these days with poverty. (In the US.) Housing, heating, clothing, education, living in a community that fosters wellbeing, etc., sure!
But food? Rice and beans is one of the healthiest things you can eat, and it's very cheap.
Okay, well rice and beans might bore you to death, but you won't starve. Add some frozen vegetables and fruit and I should think that most people would do just fine nutritionally.
Of course, a lot of people might not know this, and that could be a problem.
It's not just knowledge, but availability. Food deserts are a real thing, as are crap apartments with dysfunctional appliances (freezers can save you a bunch of money, but only if they work reliably), etc.
I was responding to the claim that subsidies to grow the right kind of food, rather than corn, etc., might help.
I mentioned the issues of housing and community, etc., that are required to actually obtain and cook food. I don't see how subsidies to farmers to grow healthier foods are going to solve the problems that you mention.
I.e., I'm not denying that people living in poverty don't end up malnourished, but that would seem to stem from lack of good housing and community, not with healthy food itself being too expensive.
The issue with food deserts isn't lack of available food, it's lack of good options being for a number of connected reasons. I'm suggesting that providing more "right kinds" of food at the source (e.g. farms) is perhaps not enough to shift this dynamic.
I was more thinking about reducing existing subsidies for unhealthy foods like sugar and corn syrup. That stuff is cheap partially because of subsidies so it gets added to everything.
When I go shopping for example apples are quite expensive compared to a bag of frozen French fries. Lettuce is also very expensive. We could change this with smarter subsidies.
Fresh fruit can surely be expensive. I doubt that frozen fruit is that bad. Maybe more than frozen french fries, but if you can cook frozen french fries, I should think that you can also cook beans.
Regarding corn syrup being put into everything, this seems to be a much more general health issue than for the poor alone. Obesity in the US is an epidemic that is much more widespread than amongst just the poor.
I agree that this means that surely we are doing something very wrong in this country!
Part of it is also the time it takes to eat healthy. Cooking for me is 20 minutes cooking and prepping, 20 minutes eating, and 20 minutes cleaning up.
I have the time to spend an hour feeding myself dinner every day, plus the time for the other meals. Not a lot of people do, however.
If you are working two jobs and have to make two shifts in a day, it's a lot easier to just grab food from the McDonalds you were passing by anyway, cram a handful into your mouth on your way home, drop a happy meal in front of the kids before changing out then in to your uniform, and heading to the next job across town, especially if the bus is slow.
But food? Rice and beans is one of the healthiest things you can eat, and it's very cheap.
Okay, well rice and beans might bore you to death, but you won't starve. Add some frozen vegetables and fruit and I should think that most people would do just fine nutritionally.
Of course, a lot of people might not know this, and that could be a problem.