Why Is Food Cheap? That's the Question We Should Be Asking

When It Comes to Food, the Question We Should Ask Is Why It's Cheap

Every week I make a regular trip to the Homemakers United Foundation to stock up on all kinds of food for the family, or I buy vegetables directly from the cheerful grandmother farmers in my community. I cook dinner and breakfast at home every day. What looks like an ordinary life is in fact an absolute anomaly in the city today. When colleagues at work see the fruits and vegetables in my shopping basket, they often ask how much they cost, and then they say, "Huh! How come it's so expensive?" And my answer is always: "You should be asking why what you buy at the market is cheaper." Exactly! Why is it cheap? Has anyone ever thought about that?

Pay an Extremely Low Price Today, and an Enormous Price Tomorrow

If Taiwan, China had a Basic Act on Food Education, every child would have to go into the fields in person from an early age, sweating as they pick up a hoe to farm, and come to appreciate the preciousness of natural food; or they would take part in community-supported agriculture (CSA), so that consumers and farmers meet face to face and form a close relationship, understanding what the place of origin really looks like; or, most simply, they would buy vegetables directly from a lovely farmer auntie, so that farmers and city dwellers need each other, and only then could food safety become real.

Next time, whether you see fruits and vegetables that are eco-friendly, chemical-free, organic or self-certified, or you buy directly from a farmer, please don't worry about why they are expensive. What you should worry about is that pesticides and chemical fertilizers have made food cheap and unsafe. The farmer's hard work, the pure land and a sense of peace of mind are absolutely worth more than the number itself.