Posted by:
dogzilla
(
)
Date: May 17, 2012 10:18AM
What's funny to me about this weird frugality is cheap foods are government subsidized (which is why they are cheap). This is why a Big Mac costs much less than, say fresh vegetables. But the cheap foods really aren't cheap in the long run because they are all so high in high fructose corn syrup, salt, sugar, and fat. So they cause health problems down the road, increase likelihood of obesity, diabetes, heart disease. Couple that with lack of exercise, no PE in schools, no exercise ethic and you've got a recipe for really poor health -- at what turns out to be a very high price when you factor in loss of productivity due to poor health and medical care, medicines and so forth.
Now my grandparents grew up during the Depression. Neither was college educated, and early in their marriage, both worked (this would have been in the early 40s). When the kids started coming, my grandmother stayed home to raise them, of course, because that's what you did back then. They had four children. They also had a fairly large in-town property upon which they planted a huge garden every year and filled the spaces with fruit, nut, and berry trees. They also kept a chicken coop. Aside from the very basics, flour, milk, sugar, coffee, etc., they were pretty much self sustaining. There was never a lack of fresh veggies or fruit at Gramma's house. What they didn't eat right away, they canned or froze. All four children -- and later all five grandchildren -- were expected to help out with the weeding, watering, harvesting, planting, canning and whatnot. (We were NOT expected to help with Chicken Slaughter Day, thank you Gramma! LOL) These people managed to feed and raise four kids on a minimal single income without any government corn subsidies, governement cheese, or any outside assistance whatsoever.
So you'd think, logically, if mormons have these large families and only one income, they'd find some space and plant a friggin' garden! That way their kids get whole fresh foods and plenty of them. The parents can spend their money on staples, which they should have plenty of in food storage anyway.
Sometimes I think people make choices out of willful ignorance. "Gee, we can't eat that pizza because I don't have a coupon..." A coupon? You can make pizza at home for pennies on the dollar and all you have to buy is flour and maybe pepperoni (the veggies -- including tomatoes for the sauce -- can all be grown/made at home). Sure it takes extra time, but when you've got anywhere from 2-6 kids underfoot, you do what our parents and grandparents did -- you put their butts to work. One kid picks the veggies, another helps freeze and can, another smashes tomatoes for sauce, someone else makes the dough -- all with mom's help and supervision. People used to be self-sustaining, but now we cannot function without Costco and coupons. It's like our collective cultural memory for how people used to live was simply wiped out. Cultural amnesia.
How do these people think the pioneers in Utah fed a dozen children in the dang desert? They planted, they brought livestock from back East, they canned foods and salted/cured/dried meats. And everyone in the family had a responsibility to participate in the care and feeding of the animals and the garden(s).
But no. Now days we just rely on Costco to stock our McMansions and then we wonder why food prices are so high. Hello.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2012 10:20AM by dogzilla.