Feeding Our Kids: Affordability versus Health

It seems like every time I turn on the radio or reading headlines on my Google page, I am finding something related to the food industry.  With the recent release of the documentary, Food Inc., and Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food, coming out in paperback, the topic of what we eat is almost as prevalent as the Michael Jackson memorial and the recession.  I haven't seen Food Inc, because after listening to interviews, I think he is pretty much preaching to the choir.  We already eat "whole foods", locally grown, not processed, etc.  And in fact, I know that we are like many others in Silicon Valley who shop at their farmers' markets and tweet about the latest organic soy orange frozen yogurt they ate for lunch.  We are teaching our kids to eat whole foods as well, and my 4 year old still prefers a bowl of strawberries or watermelon to pretty much any other food and last night asked for broccoli and pasta, no cheese please, Mommy.

So, yeah!  Yeah for us.  But what strikes me most about the food talk is that we are lucky we can afford this healthy food for our kids.  It's easy to teach kids about eating healthy when you have weekly access to a variety of food at the Farmer's market and live in California where great produce is available all year round.  I remember my graduate school days living in Boston when in the winter I thought I would throw up if I saw yet another apple or orange and craved good, fresh fruit. 

But the access to the good food isn't the biggest issue.  The bigger issue is that when processed food, you know all that food in the center of the super market or at [fill in the name of your favorite fast food joint] are so cheap, it is hard to teach those healthy choices to the kids.  In Food Inc. a family is in the supermarket and the kids want a pear, which would cost about a $1.  The family can't afford it.  Instead they can go to Burger King and buy a full meal for a family of four for $11.  I would argue that I can feed a family of 4 for less than $11 cooking at home, but that still isn't the point.  This family chose fast food not just for the convenience and that it is genetically engineered to taste good but also the subsidies make it ridiculously cheap.  We spend 5% of our income on food when we used to spend about 18%.  But we spend 18% on healthcare and we used to spend about 9%.  Our bad eating habits are costly in the long run and of course, our children will feel the biggest burden.

I worry that we don't do enough to fight this and feel like while I can afford to teach my kids' healthy living, it shouldn't be an economic choice.  It should be a lifestyle choice.  Everyone should be able to afford to buy their kids a pear.  The farm lobby is powerful, so the best choice I can make is to not support all the products they produce.  Continue doing what I do, and I guess that's what those of us who can afford to do can do so that those who cannot can benefit.  And maybe write a letter or a hundred to our representatives to make the right choices for our kids.

Felicity waxes on political and kid issues when not running her own company, volunteering, running or playing outside.  She writes and tweets regularly on flexible work and work-life balance at Cubes&Crayons and Outside the Cube.