Cheap as chips
TV chef Jamie Oliver appeared in front of the UK House of Commons health committee yesterday, testifying about how he believes the downturn in the economy could lead to people eating unhealthier food. Huge numbers of people simply no longer know how to cook, he claims, and over the years have grown to rely heavily on fast food, junk food, takeaways, and prepared meals. Oliver’s TV series ‘Jamie’s Dinners’, about his uphill battle to improve the eating habits of schoolchildren, certainly seems to bear up that assertion:
But what will happen to these people as real food grows increasingly expensive? Oliver says that in the past, people were able to use their cooking skills to make nutritious meals even when money was tight, but now there is a generation of young people who are nervous about using raw ingredients and simply don’t know the first thing about how to prepare them. He fears that these people will be forced by sheer economics to eat even more of the cheap (and usually nasty) food available, which could lead to an even bigger obesity problem in the UK, especially among children.
Of course, the UK isn’t the only place feeling the effect of higher food prices, the ubiquitousness of fast-food restaurants, and the rise of obesity. In the US, it’s even worse. And at least one fast-food chain is now explicitly using the shaky economy as part of their newest ad campaign. In this ad for KFC’s $10 Challenge, a family visits a grocery store and tries to buy all the ingredients for a chicken supper for under $10, only to throw their hands up in failure and, laughing, run out of the store to KFC to buy supper instead. It really has to be seen to be believed.
I don’t have the time or space to rant about how offensive this ad is on so many levels (mocking people’s money problems! insulting their budgeting/grocery shopping skills! having the gall to claim that fast food is equivalent to home cooking! assuming that no one already has a single food staple in their cupboard!), so I’ll leave it up to chef Kurt Michael Friese on Grist, who explains in detail about how he beat KFC’s $10 ‘family meal’ challenge. And he even gives you the recipes at the end. Beat that, KFC!
