The Elitism of RFK Jr. and MAHA
Recently I was discussing the looniness of RFK Jr. with my mother. At one point in the conversation, she said despite all his anti-scientific, anti-vaccine nonsense, there is one thing he is doing right. He is working to remove all the chemicals from food and encourage Americans from eating so much ultra-processed foods.
The internet memes love to tell us, we shouldn't shun the man's message because we don't like him personally. He's doing us some good, isn't he?
I have to disagree. His message is all wrong. His mission will fail. It is elitist and completely ignores the needs of lower-income Americans.
"But Rachel," you protest. "You are being hypocritical. You are the one who shops at the farmers' market first when she food shops. You are the one who insists on eating mostly home-cooked meals and brown bags her lunches. You are an 'ingredient household.'"
Yes. I do all that. I admit it. I prioritize home cooked meals with fresh ingredients that are locally sourced as much as possible. That's all true.
Do you know why I do that? I do it for the same reason RJK Jr. does it (or so he says). I do it because I can afford it.
Kevin and I are a pair of middle-aged DINKS. We take in a respectable, upper-middle-class income. Our home is a modest, two-bedroom apartment condo and we don't have a mortgage on it. We don't have to pay to maintain a large house or yard. We have no children so we are not paying for college educations, weddings, or presents for the grandchildren as many of our peers are doing. This leaves me with enough discretionary cash to enable a generous food budget. I am not frugal when it comes to food. Cooking and eating quality food is a passion for me. The money I spend on food in a week for the two of us could probably feed a more frugal family of four (possibly for much longer than a week if they're good at budgeting). I don't have a Costco membership. I don't store massive amounts of food. I buy what I plan to eat each week.
You know what else I have? I have time. I work an eight-hour day in a five-day workweek. I work from home at least twice a week. I have a chunk of time on a Saturday morning to do all this shopping. I have evenings open to devote to preparing a meal. I live within a short drive of the farm markets and supermarkets where I shop. I have leisure time at home to browse recipes.
Too many Americans are not so lucky. They live in food deserts and shopping in well-stocked grocery stores requires long trips by either car (spending gas money) or public transportation (and how many groceries can you carry on public transportation). One can buy many packs of instant ramen with the same amount of money that buys a couple of apples at the farm market. Consider that the cost of food is only a fraction of the cost. There are so many hidden costs when it comes to cooking and eating well. Many Americans work long hours and don't have time to shop or cook. They may also not be able to afford to properly equip a kitchen with essentials such as pots, pans, knives, and appliances. They may not be able to afford the cleaning supplies needed to keep a kitchen free of harmful bacteria and vermin. I have said it many times that you don't need a huge, fancy, well-equipped kitchen to cook delicious food. However, you do need to invest money and time to do even baseline cooking
Low-income Americans have limited choices where they can get buy their food, what foods they can afford, and their ability to prepare meals, given the restraints of what they need to cook. Humans do what they have to do to fill their bellies. All this "ultra-processed junk" fills a need. It puts food in people's bellies and does so cheaply.
Why do manufacturers alter natural foods and fill them with "chemicals"? There are several reasons. One is palatability. If manufacturers can chemically alter food so it tastes good and has a pleasant mouthfeel, consumers will want to eat more it. Colors are added for visual appeal because humans tend to eat with their eyes first. Chemicals also enable shelf stability. They enable sturdiness. This means food can travel well and be stored for many days, weeks, or months and still be intact and edible when the consumer eats it. There is also the economy of scale to consider. Industrially made food is made in large quantities, which makes it cheaper to produce and to sell. The palatability factors plays into this. If manufacturer use cheap base ingredients in order to increase production, that means they have to add more ingredients to make them taste good.
Once food makes it through manufacturing and long distribution channels, it needs to end up in a place where consumers can purchase it. For low income Americans this can mean buying food from an inner-city bodega or a rural gas station convenience store. These stores only have so much shelf space for fresh food. They don't have much space for refrigeration. They may not be able to afford to keep food that will rot quickly if it's not moved off the shelf. They may not also have access to the premium wholesalers where they can buy decent fresh produce and meats. Businesses like these need to buy large amounts of shelf-stable foods that can sit in their stores indefinitely.
RFJ Junior, Donald Trump, and TikTok tradwives have never had to buy food from a bodega. They have had access to fresh, nutritious foods their whole lives and have never been concerned about the time and equipment needed to cook it. They can sit in their palatial homes and criticize how other people eat without giving a thought to how food insecurity and living in a good desert is going to affect someone's eating patterns. Our government tells us how horrible junk food is while cutting SNAP and WIC benefits, forcing Americans to eat the very foods they demonize.
Can any of the self-righteous elitists on social media even define what ultra-processed food is? What is it? Why is it bad? All foods we eat are "processed" to one degree or another. There are few foods we eat in a completely natural state (even if you hand pick your fruits and vegetables, you probably wash them first and trim away parts that are bad or inedible). Does a food that goes through multiple levels of processing automatically lack nutritional value? So tell me what foods you mean? Do you mean foods made with white flour like pasta? They eat a lot of pasta in Italy and that country has practically been canonized by the rest of the world as being the kind of quality food. Is ice cream ultra-processed? It has protein and calcium, doesn't it? What about heat-and-eat dinners that contain vegetables?
Also, what chemicals are you talking about when you say you want to eliminate all these awful "chemicals" from food? Name those chemicals. Tell me what they do. Tell me why they are bad for you. Show me the peer-reviewed studies. Why do you think you know more than the scientists and researchers at the FDA who have studied and approved these substances? Do you think it's automatically untrustworthy simply because it's a government agency and anything associated with the government is bad or wrong? Everything is a chemical. The components of a hot dog comes from the same periodic table as a carrot. You may not know what a certain chemical is, but don't assume it's bad simply because you can't pronounce it. Did you know our food is full of dihydrogen monoxide? It's in everything we eat.
If we want Americans to eat better, we have to reform our entire food system. We need higher wages and decent food benefits for the needy. We need a way to bring nutritious food to the masses and an easy way for the masses to find nutritious food. We need to make life affordable enough so that Americans don't have to work three jobs in order to pay rent and buy a few packs of instant ramen every week. We need to make life affordable enough so that someone's three jobs don't take the time needed to shop and cook.
This is never going to happen. Do you know why? It's because a better food system isn't going to benefit the major food companies. Insurance companies want us fat and sick. Corporate America wants us poor and stupid. Food companies want us to keep buying their products and they don't want the government to make it easier for us to buy nutritious "unprocessed" food. These companies are paying the government millions every year to disparage any true efforts at reforming our food system as "socialist" and scare us all out of our own interests.
If you don't believe me, look at the numbers.
...to name a few.
So go ahead and sit in your comfortable government office and tell me you're going to eliminate "chemicals" and "processed junk" from American's diets. Either you plan to radically overhaul our food system, or you will let Americans starve. Don't take the only food some people can afford and have access too out of their mouths.
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