1) Cheap, high-yield corn. Upside: cheap carbs. Downside: Probably unsustainable. Crops require crazy chemical fertizilers to support the increased yields. Because it's cheap, people want to use corn for all kinds of crap it's not really suitable for, such as feeding livestock despite it being outside of their normal diet, which has ballooning negative effects (antibiotics, animal suffering)
2) High-fat, high-sugar foods becoming cheaper. Upside: Tastes good. Downside: Not good for you. Higher health costs, greater human suffering.
3) GM crops. Upside: all kinds of stuff. Downside: mostly unfounded FUD.
4) Chemical additives. Upside: longer shelf life, ergo cheaper products. Downside: certain additives are downright scary in doses far greater than normal presence in foods; AFAICT there's not enough research on the long-term effects of the normal doses.
I'd say 2 and 4 are derivatives of 1. 4, not so much because a lot of petroleum and coal derivatives are used in those chemicals too, but more sugar in stuff is almost always because it is HFCS.
A friend of mine has a theory that the rise of depression over the past 20 years has a lot to do with the low-fat diet kick the country has been on, even though low-fat diets have never been proven to prevent obesity or to reduce it. Since our brains are mostly made of fat, maybe low-fat diets aren't the best ideas? I personally eat less fat than most people I know, yet I'm still fat.
This makes sense with the link between good fats, like Omega 3s, and elevated moods I keep hearing about.
It's really important to recognize the difference between good fats (salmon, avocado, olive oil etc) and bad fats (fries, butter etc). Same is true for good and bad carbs.
1) Cheap, high-yield corn. Upside: cheap carbs. Downside: Probably unsustainable. Crops require crazy chemical fertizilers to support the increased yields. Because it's cheap, people want to use corn for all kinds of crap it's not really suitable for, such as feeding livestock despite it being outside of their normal diet, which has ballooning negative effects (antibiotics, animal suffering)
2) High-fat, high-sugar foods becoming cheaper. Upside: Tastes good. Downside: Not good for you. Higher health costs, greater human suffering.
3) GM crops. Upside: all kinds of stuff. Downside: mostly unfounded FUD.
4) Chemical additives. Upside: longer shelf life, ergo cheaper products. Downside: certain additives are downright scary in doses far greater than normal presence in foods; AFAICT there's not enough research on the long-term effects of the normal doses.