Now we are getting somewhere!!! Since I know from your latest post pancakes / eggs / bacon is a preferred trifecta for you I further know you are telling the truth about this passion :) Bacon is hard to resist. Here is my current favorite way to make bacon. Just not sure I would enjoy the local tap water :) When it comes to breakfast my fave is corned beef hash with poached eggs on top! My favorite side meat is Canadian bacon and bacon a close second. Sausage is for those who don't know any better. Since you are a bacon lover here is is the latest and greatest way to make it.
For the record Americans (we are all a lot richer these days than ever) pretty much are converting to eating chicken so they are missing out on yummy bacon I think. IMO after having eaten both dry cured and wet cured pork, the dry cured stuff is EVEN BETTER. Proscuitto (dry) versus American ham (wet) NO CONTEST. Needless to say but the wet stuff is full of nitrites and nitrates b/c it is the CHEAPEST way to get to some flavor profile. Nitrites would be a perfect example of the FLC we ignore when we make stuff -- cancer is a drag.
Thanks for commenting as ALWAYS -- now I have bacon on the brain.
A few years ago a PRC group bought Smithfield a pretty large integrated US pork producer. Think long and hard if you buy bacon marketed by Smithfield. Imagine a work environment of going to work and having to STAY IN A BUILDING with a million hogs and you get to go home for 12 hours every 7 days!!! By comparison GrubHub on a bike in Brooklyn doesn't sound so challenging.
I have been amidst a hog operation. The stench is OVERWHELMING. Move them indoors sounds dystopian! The greatest thing about the building in question is it was once a planned apartment for humans built speculatively and never used. People can rationalize most anything I think. If you look the place up it could be in a downtown anywhere. Asinine
I think about this issue a lot and I completely agree with you about pricing things properly. The problem is, if someone can offload their costs onto someone else, or the environment, they will. The only way proper pricing happens, as far as I can tell, is if governments require it, and people just have it in their heads that they don't want the government doing this (agriculture and carbon emissions in New Zealand being a great example I'm seeing).
I think this is why it was so tragic that Thatcher & Reagan rescued Neoliberalism from the ash-heap. I feel like, at least in the US, this is the strong root of distrust and even hatred of a representative government.
It's been a disaster in so many ways. There were some elements of economic reform in the 1980s which had to happen, but watching New Zealand's inequality spiral out of control within my lifetime is so desperately sad.
Just my opinion here as I am a fan and read a lot of history and economics. I would love to hear your opinion and continue the conversation. The economic miracles in Germany and Japan and later South Korea were blueprints to abandon Neoliberalism. The US established democracy 2.0 there in ways they couldn't easily do back home. Only the OPEC oil shocks of 1974 & 1979 impacted the populace in many countries that "something had to be done". None of those societies fell for the "need to reform" but rather simply adapt to reducing the impacts of energy since that is all OPEC was really about. In hindsight, it was SIMPLY the transition from the industrial to information ages. Britain and the US largely resurrected the system that had begun unraveling societies in the 1870s through the 1940s. It was a failed process that had led to unrivaled concentration of wealth. It is unfortunate we fell for it. I hope we resist its appeal when we tear it down once and for all. For Americans the hatred and distrust of government was part of the plan. It will take decades to undo it I suppose. Our current Supreme Court is the most perfect expression of Neoliberalism and they get to serve until they die. They bring with them all sorts of absurdities and nostalgia like "Original Intent". The foolishness of embracing what dudes who did their best writing with quills is quite something. It is not surprising the British still engage with a Monarchy and its associated nonsense. Change is hard and no one fights harder than the old guard.
Also, big changes come from all different directions, I think. Some are ground up, some top-down, some a new ideas which seem to come out of nowhere and knock things in a completely new direction...
Thanks for reading Melanie. I am a fan of innovation and the creative destruction that accompanies it. I just believe government is the single entity to enforce boundaries we desperately need.
The kind of big change that would come from the top is the type that we probably wouldn’t want to see. We could definitely use some of the FLC changes you suggest, including in the food industry, which purposely puts out products that make us sick and shorten our lives and not only profits from doing so, but gets very rich. A positive outcome would require the big food cos. to incorporate a little TLC to their attitude toward customers rather than only thinking about the bottom line. I fear that will never happen. Thanks for another provocative post, Mark.
Thanks for reading and commenting Ruth. While it is only a modest nudge, I think people would be surprised if they stepped back and examined the fully loaded cost of many things in their daily lives. The food system, as you cite provides lots of examples. While the numbers vary it is a pretty good estimate that around 70% of US Farm Bill spending is in support of the things we know we should eat less of and less than 2% of the spending is in support of the things we know we should eat more of (fruits and vegetables). There are MANY THINGS in our economy that throw money back into our collective welfare the more we use it!
Wow, those statistics are mind-boggling, though not really surprising considering what I see on the supermarket shelves and the growing girth and declining health of those I see around me. May I ask where you found those stats? I can see writing more about that in a future piece. It's really alarming how much cr_p folks consume.
I am sure the numbers are nuanced so I would encourage you to Google something like "what percentage of the agriculture bill goes to fruits and vegetables". I spent a portion of my career adjacent to the food industry. I have posted about it in the past. My favorite (and definitive) statistic about our trips to the grocery store is 75% of all the SKUs in a modern grocery store contain either corn or soybeans components in them. Almost ALL of the weird ingredients in food come from those two crops. Think about it? I try to eat a lot of whole foods nowadays. From my background I get a kick out of reading labels as I know generally where all the crazy ingredients originate. All of this is rather new (about 50 years) and coincides with the transition to incredible obesity rates in the US and around the world where the practices have been exported. This does coincide by the way with the VERY SAME period under which Americans made a wholesale shift to chicken as protein.
I will forward some links when I can find the ones I've linked in previous posts.
No worries, Mark! I’ll reread some of your past posts. How oddly fascinating (and scary) that harmless sounding crops like soybeans and corn account for so much that likely harms us. Couldn’t the bigwig manufacturers have come up with healthier ways to use them? But clearly that would require leaving them in their natural state can’t have that!
Corn and soybeans are big business for. Lotsa corn for ethanol in gasoline. Almost as much for animal feed. I love 🌽 on the cob. Just a little over 1% of corn is human consumption. Crazy!
TLC of a cheeseburger and fries to society must be staggering in future medical costs and lost health productivity just like cigarette smoking is. Thanks for making us think about this dynamic.
You hit this on the head Paul!!! Even FUNNIER. I got bit by the spellchecker. TLC which ended up all over the post was an autocorrect I missed for tender loving care. I went back and changed them to FLC (fully loaded cost). A "happy meal" is kinda sad in a lot of ways. A fast food cheeseburger is a perfect fit for the discussion. One aspect that many might not consider. Many are grazed on public land. I think the way animal access is priced is cost per 100 cattle per month. Public land grazing is about 10% of the market price versus private land. A big example of absurd underpricing of something that you describe as being profoundly damaging to all of us.
In the poll, what about “all of the above?” Big change doesn’t ‘only’ come from one source. To quote Marge Simpson, “One person can make a difference, but I guess most of the time they shouldn’t.”
Thanks for reading CL. I love the Simpsons and there is a ton of wisdom in it beyond the humor. To your point a new idea should become a starting point for honest dialog, compromise and consensus. It is probably who lots of good ideas exist and wallow in obscurity until desperation takes over. We'd be better off if more people cited The Simpsons :)
But then only rich people could eat bacon!
Now we are getting somewhere!!! Since I know from your latest post pancakes / eggs / bacon is a preferred trifecta for you I further know you are telling the truth about this passion :) Bacon is hard to resist. Here is my current favorite way to make bacon. Just not sure I would enjoy the local tap water :) When it comes to breakfast my fave is corned beef hash with poached eggs on top! My favorite side meat is Canadian bacon and bacon a close second. Sausage is for those who don't know any better. Since you are a bacon lover here is is the latest and greatest way to make it.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/02/26-story-pig-farm-in-china-for-over-1-million-pigs.html
For the record Americans (we are all a lot richer these days than ever) pretty much are converting to eating chicken so they are missing out on yummy bacon I think. IMO after having eaten both dry cured and wet cured pork, the dry cured stuff is EVEN BETTER. Proscuitto (dry) versus American ham (wet) NO CONTEST. Needless to say but the wet stuff is full of nitrites and nitrates b/c it is the CHEAPEST way to get to some flavor profile. Nitrites would be a perfect example of the FLC we ignore when we make stuff -- cancer is a drag.
Thanks for commenting as ALWAYS -- now I have bacon on the brain.
That pig skyscraper video is bonkers. And a little disturbing though I can't say why.
A few years ago a PRC group bought Smithfield a pretty large integrated US pork producer. Think long and hard if you buy bacon marketed by Smithfield. Imagine a work environment of going to work and having to STAY IN A BUILDING with a million hogs and you get to go home for 12 hours every 7 days!!! By comparison GrubHub on a bike in Brooklyn doesn't sound so challenging.
I have been amidst a hog operation. The stench is OVERWHELMING. Move them indoors sounds dystopian! The greatest thing about the building in question is it was once a planned apartment for humans built speculatively and never used. People can rationalize most anything I think. If you look the place up it could be in a downtown anywhere. Asinine
I think about this issue a lot and I completely agree with you about pricing things properly. The problem is, if someone can offload their costs onto someone else, or the environment, they will. The only way proper pricing happens, as far as I can tell, is if governments require it, and people just have it in their heads that they don't want the government doing this (agriculture and carbon emissions in New Zealand being a great example I'm seeing).
I think this is why it was so tragic that Thatcher & Reagan rescued Neoliberalism from the ash-heap. I feel like, at least in the US, this is the strong root of distrust and even hatred of a representative government.
It's been a disaster in so many ways. There were some elements of economic reform in the 1980s which had to happen, but watching New Zealand's inequality spiral out of control within my lifetime is so desperately sad.
Just my opinion here as I am a fan and read a lot of history and economics. I would love to hear your opinion and continue the conversation. The economic miracles in Germany and Japan and later South Korea were blueprints to abandon Neoliberalism. The US established democracy 2.0 there in ways they couldn't easily do back home. Only the OPEC oil shocks of 1974 & 1979 impacted the populace in many countries that "something had to be done". None of those societies fell for the "need to reform" but rather simply adapt to reducing the impacts of energy since that is all OPEC was really about. In hindsight, it was SIMPLY the transition from the industrial to information ages. Britain and the US largely resurrected the system that had begun unraveling societies in the 1870s through the 1940s. It was a failed process that had led to unrivaled concentration of wealth. It is unfortunate we fell for it. I hope we resist its appeal when we tear it down once and for all. For Americans the hatred and distrust of government was part of the plan. It will take decades to undo it I suppose. Our current Supreme Court is the most perfect expression of Neoliberalism and they get to serve until they die. They bring with them all sorts of absurdities and nostalgia like "Original Intent". The foolishness of embracing what dudes who did their best writing with quills is quite something. It is not surprising the British still engage with a Monarchy and its associated nonsense. Change is hard and no one fights harder than the old guard.
Also, big changes come from all different directions, I think. Some are ground up, some top-down, some a new ideas which seem to come out of nowhere and knock things in a completely new direction...
Thanks for reading Melanie. I am a fan of innovation and the creative destruction that accompanies it. I just believe government is the single entity to enforce boundaries we desperately need.
The kind of big change that would come from the top is the type that we probably wouldn’t want to see. We could definitely use some of the FLC changes you suggest, including in the food industry, which purposely puts out products that make us sick and shorten our lives and not only profits from doing so, but gets very rich. A positive outcome would require the big food cos. to incorporate a little TLC to their attitude toward customers rather than only thinking about the bottom line. I fear that will never happen. Thanks for another provocative post, Mark.
Thanks for reading and commenting Ruth. While it is only a modest nudge, I think people would be surprised if they stepped back and examined the fully loaded cost of many things in their daily lives. The food system, as you cite provides lots of examples. While the numbers vary it is a pretty good estimate that around 70% of US Farm Bill spending is in support of the things we know we should eat less of and less than 2% of the spending is in support of the things we know we should eat more of (fruits and vegetables). There are MANY THINGS in our economy that throw money back into our collective welfare the more we use it!
Wow, those statistics are mind-boggling, though not really surprising considering what I see on the supermarket shelves and the growing girth and declining health of those I see around me. May I ask where you found those stats? I can see writing more about that in a future piece. It's really alarming how much cr_p folks consume.
I am sure the numbers are nuanced so I would encourage you to Google something like "what percentage of the agriculture bill goes to fruits and vegetables". I spent a portion of my career adjacent to the food industry. I have posted about it in the past. My favorite (and definitive) statistic about our trips to the grocery store is 75% of all the SKUs in a modern grocery store contain either corn or soybeans components in them. Almost ALL of the weird ingredients in food come from those two crops. Think about it? I try to eat a lot of whole foods nowadays. From my background I get a kick out of reading labels as I know generally where all the crazy ingredients originate. All of this is rather new (about 50 years) and coincides with the transition to incredible obesity rates in the US and around the world where the practices have been exported. This does coincide by the way with the VERY SAME period under which Americans made a wholesale shift to chicken as protein.
I will forward some links when I can find the ones I've linked in previous posts.
No worries, Mark! I’ll reread some of your past posts. How oddly fascinating (and scary) that harmless sounding crops like soybeans and corn account for so much that likely harms us. Couldn’t the bigwig manufacturers have come up with healthier ways to use them? But clearly that would require leaving them in their natural state can’t have that!
Corn and soybeans are big business for. Lotsa corn for ethanol in gasoline. Almost as much for animal feed. I love 🌽 on the cob. Just a little over 1% of corn is human consumption. Crazy!
TLC of a cheeseburger and fries to society must be staggering in future medical costs and lost health productivity just like cigarette smoking is. Thanks for making us think about this dynamic.
You hit this on the head Paul!!! Even FUNNIER. I got bit by the spellchecker. TLC which ended up all over the post was an autocorrect I missed for tender loving care. I went back and changed them to FLC (fully loaded cost). A "happy meal" is kinda sad in a lot of ways. A fast food cheeseburger is a perfect fit for the discussion. One aspect that many might not consider. Many are grazed on public land. I think the way animal access is priced is cost per 100 cattle per month. Public land grazing is about 10% of the market price versus private land. A big example of absurd underpricing of something that you describe as being profoundly damaging to all of us.
In the poll, what about “all of the above?” Big change doesn’t ‘only’ come from one source. To quote Marge Simpson, “One person can make a difference, but I guess most of the time they shouldn’t.”
Do I have to point out that’s a joke?
Thanks for reading CL. I love the Simpsons and there is a ton of wisdom in it beyond the humor. To your point a new idea should become a starting point for honest dialog, compromise and consensus. It is probably who lots of good ideas exist and wallow in obscurity until desperation takes over. We'd be better off if more people cited The Simpsons :)