Cheap Calories- Expensive Nutrition

With all the talk of rising food costs, I was interested to see this post Our Cheap, Cheap Food (Courtesy of Bitten - a New York Times Blog) about a report released by The Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

We spend a lower percent of our income on food than other countries. We spend less and eat more than we did 3o years ago. These trends are because of efficiencies in industrial food production by growing monocultures, using fertilizers, and big factory farming. It is also because of our unchecked use of natural resources.

Our food has become cheaper, but we pay for it in ways we don't always consider including:

• taxes that go to subsidies
  
• health care costs
  
• environmental costs
  

Now, the efficiencies are going away, and we start to feel the pinch of higher food prices. We would not notice the increasing so much if we weren't spending all of our income in other areas (cable, giant tvs, the latest electronics and fashions).

What can we do? Eat less and maybe lose a little weight? Bite the bullet and pay the bill for years of artificially low food prices?