I just got back from my honeymoon (I know: congrats!) in Vietnam. It was my first trip outside of North America and I was really shocked by many of the cultural differences that were evident every step of the way. One of the things that really made me think was how cheap fresh vegetables and fruit were in comparison to packaged snack foods. Why buy a small bag of salted potato chips when you can buy a bushel of bananas, jack fruit, and oranges for the same amount? Even our dinner at fancy restaurants ended with a plate of fruit and not a wildly decedent dessert. Hardly anyone in Vietnam is fat or obese. In fact, I was probably the fattest person (height/weight-wise) around.
Could there be a connection here?
In America people are responsible for themselves by exercising good stewardship in choosing what and how much to eat. It's freedom of democracy demonstrated by what's stocked at our grocery stores. And don't get me wrong, I love having all these wonderful options especially since I can afford it. But what if you can't afford it? What can you buy with $3?
Curious to try this mini-experiment, I ventured to my nearest grocery store: PCC. Ok, so a PCC is for the rich yuppies who automatically feel healthier with one step through the door, but this is an experiment of convenience. I imagine you may get similar results at a Safeway or Fred Meyers if you went mostly organic. Most of the foods that would fill me up were packaged processed snack foods or small bakery items like cookies and a roll. In the canned food aisles I can get a can of organic beans and or soup. In the produce aisle I could buy 1 organic apple and a head of lettuce with $3. I couldn't even afford one of their frozen dinners at $3.99. Next I went to my local convenience store, good ol' Seven-Eleven! With $3 I can get a hot dog with all the fixings, a large beverage, and a small bag of chips or candy bar. Wow! Dinner, drink, and a dessert to boot.
I just didn't understand: How come all this junk food is so cheap? Then I learned about government incentives for companies and farmers. Apparently there are many government incentives put in place to entice farmers of America to overproduce more corn and soybeans than needed, resulting in a drop in prices. The incentives were paved with good intentions until large food corporations squeezed themselves into the middleman position. Some farmers under contract with large corporations have been bullied into piling on mountains of debt in order to meet their demands in making their processed foods.
A quick side note: The average chicken farmer in America makes about $16,000/yr. That's about $8.33 an hour. The rest is paid to the corporation and it's shareholders. Does that sound like the government incentive helping these guys out?
Dr. Barry Sears, author of Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad, argues, “The problem lies with America’s continually subsidizing of corn and soybean production.” Government subsidies generate “an oversupply of cheap refined carbohydrates and cheap vegetable oils that when combined give rise to increased diet-induced inflammation.” This inflammation in turn “activates the genes in people who are genetically predisposed to gain weight with relative ease,” giving rise to all the health problems connected to excessive weight. Medical spending for obesity is estimated to have reached $147 billion in 2008, an 87 percent increase in the past decade.
Simply put: Cheaper Processed food = Fattest Country in the World!
People keep saying that if we want a healthier America, government should no longer subsidize farmers one penny, leaving the market free to give us the information we need to make good decisions. They look to the Obama administration and Congress to do the country an enormous favor if they stopped assisting the production of food that contributes to poor nutrition. This would be real progress toward better stewardship of our bodies, and better health, right? Yes, but this is not the only solution.
The quickest change can be influenced by socially conscious consumers, marketers, and food companies. Already we see an organic movement increasing by 25% each year, and marketers and food companies are scrambling for new marketing strategies to appeal to a healthier lifestyle. Even then we need to be wary of these products and read the labels. The more we spend on healthier food products the lower the prices will be. The rule of supply and demand will always prevail on tangible items.
As marketers we need to promote campaigns that create consumer awareness about healthy living for a stronger and vibrant America. We need to take a stand against deceptive marketing tactics, and as a marketer within your company you have a lot more power to change things than a mother with an obese child with diabetes. So what if you lost that soda pop account! Let Joe Blow Marketing Group (a fake name I pulled out of thin air) take the blame for contributing to the obesity epidemic. I certainly don't want that on my conscience and neither should you.
About the Author: E. LaVielle is currently a Senior Account Manager for a software company in Seattle, WA, with a degree in Marketing from Western Washington University and over 7 years of work experience in marketing, health insurance, and e-commerce. Her passion for marketing made her write this blog. Seriously...it did.
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