We used to spend 18% of our income on food, and 9% on healthcare. Today, we spend 9% of our income on food and 18% of healthcare.
A soda might cost you $.99, but the true cost can be as high as $4.00.
There’s a difference between the dollars and cents we put towards our food and the benefit we receive as part of our diet, the economy, and environment.
Even the most health-conscious people who prefer wholistic medicine over modern western medicine consume antibiotics from their food. This decimates the human gut and sets up a series of potential conditions if not remedied.
When feedlots succeed our biodiversity loses. Conventional farming inputs chemicals with subpar results that require more and more chemicals each year. Fertilizers are the same way, and one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
Pollinators lose, too. And without them we lose important cycles and pretty flowers.
Small ranchers who care might as well be futurists, because they can see the writing that’s on the wall. Not everything is as good as it seems- chemicals, fertilizers, antibiotics are catching up to us all.
Just because you don’t pay for it directly doesn’t mean there’s not a cost associated with it. It’s hard to overcome nature and processes that have been around for 100+ million years.