I picking up what you are putting down.  

I wonder if "healthier" food results in more employment up and down the production chain?  Or if it doesn't matter.

I wonder myself. Or if it is less due to migrant farming...  The workers move with the crop

Your post hits it right on the head.  Food manufacturers need to back off on producing that addicitive MO triggering substance they pass off as nutrition.  I just came back from China...they are discovering the monkey-on-your-back Starbucks, Mickey Ds, KFC etc.  You can see their physiques changing with the times.

I swear us humans are going to cause the Earth to fall out of the universe...gravity can only hold so much! (My skinnyNonScientist oberservation)

 I just came back from China...they are discovering the monkey-on-your-back Starbucks, Mickey Ds, KFC etc.  You can see their physiques changing with the times.

-This is terrible and sad. This is one thing that we do that they shouldn't emulate.

American tastes are changing.  Obesity and a lack of health is untenable.  The internet also gives us better access to nutrition than medical professionals, since ADA guidelines were basically written by grain industry and processed food lobbyists.  Having talked to people in the industry, there definitely is a reduction in purchases in the middle to upper class bracket.  The problem is that people with a lower SES purchase processed food because it's cheaper and easier to get, especially in urban cities where sometimes there are no grocery stores for miles and they have no transportation.

There is a larger issue that much job loss is due to automation and persistent outsourcing across the board.  Many of these corporations are automating more and more.  Hopefully there will be alternatives created.  Statistics wise, that probably accounts for a greater degree of job loss though the corporations are loathe to discuss it openly.  We will often see deals where we will keep a few hundred jobs state side, but thousands will be sent overseas.  That is a big problem too.  

You know- a colleague told me a Chinese group bought Smithfield, which was a virginia Ham company. Skinny loves ham.  Anyway, he said that they closed down a lot of the factory and would just slaughter the animals here (or something like that) send it to china for further processing and send it back over here.

My first thoughts were: 1) That is a **** load of preservatives to be able to do that and 2) This is the country with regulations so relaxed and those so money orientated that they ended up with melamine in baby food, dog food, and tooth paste.

Ya know- I might just start looking at where my MEAT is coming from. I always check the seafood...but I may just be shopping at Wholefoods all the time since they know WHERE their meat came from and under what standards it was raised. Well at least they know better than the trans-continental ham people!!!

I lived in Russia for five years, and now that I'm married to a Russian, we visit regularly.

Ten years ago was the first time I had ever seen a fat child in Russia. Before that, despite the stereotypes, there were almost no fat people there. However, as their lifestyles become more and more Westernized, as they drive everywhere in cars and eat highly processed foods, they begin to look more and more like us.

However, as their lifestyles become more and more Westernized, as they drive everywhere in cars and eat highly processed foods, they begin to look more and more like us.

-Nod.

You know what is weird. I like exercise for exercisings [sic] sake, but I love driving my car. Often, I have to pretend "that I am French" to walk that mile or two to somewhere close.

One thing is: Super Walmart (which is another corp but I hate but it is the closest store) is about 0.5 miles from me if I could fly like a crow and about I mile from me if I take the streets that are there.  The problem is: I cant walk it because there isnt a safe route in which there is an adequate shoulder, bike lane, or side walk.  I would totally walk it in the winter (like for milk and cold basics...not in the summer with milk products though).  At some small level, I blame city governments and urban planners 

I'm even closer to a grocery store, but we also don't have sidewalks. I'm too scared to walk, and I certainly don't let my kids off our street. There technically is a sidewalk on the main road, but we'd have to cross to get to it, and there is no light and no crosswalk. We don't design neighborhoods for livability or walkability. We'd love to move closer in the city where we could be more active, but we can't afford it. So we've got our suburban McMansion in isolation.

We need to make our spaces safe for activity and encourage walkabillity.