Replies to post #12089 on ~SUSTAINABLE LIVING FOR CHALLENGING TIMES

[HowardHughs]

And: Childhood Obesity Is Rising 'Shockingly Fast' — Even In Poor Countries

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/10/17/770905500/childhood-obesity-is-rising-shockingly-fast-even-in-poor-countries

at least 340 million adolescents worldwide between ages 5-19, and 40 million children under age 5, have been classified as overweight, the report found. The most profound increase has been in the 5-19 age group, where the global rate of overweight increased from 10.3% in 2000 to 18.4% in 2018.

"It's a shockingly fast increase," says Laurence Chandy, director of UNICEF's Office of Global Insights and Policy and a lead author of the report. "It's hard to think of any development indicator where you see such a rapid deterioration."

The U.S. is near the top of the list, with a rate of adolescent overweight around 42%

as processed food and beverages become cheaper and more widely available, levels of childhood obesity that were once the domain of rich countries are now occurring at lower and lower household income levels, particularly in Africa and South Asia. In 2000, only around one-fifth of low-income countries had an adolescent population in which at least 10% were classified as overweight; in 2016, three-quarters of those countries met that threshold.
--------------------------------------------------------
I grew up in a rural community and I watched Saturday morning cartoons and adds selling Fruity Pebbles,Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms ..................

[Monksdream]

I am currently writing a book, if no other reason than for my own amusement, that partially addresses the concerns in that article.

As the 20th century began, humans living in urban areas, starting with the biggest cities, enjoyed conveniences their forebears in the prior centuries could only imagine. Telephones, radios, self propelled vehicles, refrigeration, electricity for lighting and heating. The list was long by 1900 and grew much longer by year 2000. One could easily -- at least I think it is easily made -- that modern humans had little in common with their forebears of the 19th century who had more in common with their forebears going back to the first beginnings of civilization when humans evolved from nomadic to settled societies.

One cultural phenomenon peculiar to America during the decade of the 1950s was the popularity of what were called "Westerns" on TV. Seven of the highest rated programs were Westerns. It almost seems now like Americans, despite the prosperity of that era and the optimism that things would only get better for them, spent their evenings looking backward to a time period when there was no electricity, no cars, no crowded super highways, no TV, etc. That sentimentality continued into the following decades. Westerns were still popular during the 60s and 70s.

Hollywood also supplied this yearning for a simpler time with its cowboy movies, beginning with the silent film era.

During the 1950s Hollywood also made a few movies about troubled teens. Alienated, restless, self destructive, bored, rebellious were words the intelligentsia used to describe their psyches. Teen rebellion has now become part of Western cultures. Large corporations have made billions in profits from it in the last 70 years.

Nothing is made to last in the modern societies.

[sumisu]

"Progress," in retrospect, has been "regress" in disguise! Yes, I agree with all of what you outlined in your post. I can only add that my Mom and Grand Mom lived during the Great Depression and basically I was taught to stay close to the land for food and near a train for transportation. When I finally bought a house with limited property of 1/7th of an acre, I was able to make it produce more than most properties because I was taught gardening skills at an early age.

I wrote this short essay a while back.

THE U.S. AGRICULATURAL MODEL

I was always taught "reap what you sow." My late Mom taught me this Biblical concept, gave me a little plot of land, and showed me how to grow vegetables and herbs. My Dad had an apple/peach orchard. The problem with the U.S. now is that around 4% of the food is produced for the other 96%; this is hardly a sustainable proportion. In Russia, which has the “dacha” garden approach and does not tax food, 40% of the food comes from its gardens.

Long term we are on a precipice with only three day's food supplies in big box stores. If the grid broke down by whatever reason, we are toast. Cities will be violent hot spots, areas of concentrated populations very bad but possibly less violent, and small villages will be safer.

The U.S. produces an abundance of food because it uses a mono or a one-crop approach that could not exist without using large tracts of land and large machinery operating on abundant oil. Furthermore, the food seeds are grown in soil doused with petrochemicals. The resulting crops are a slow inducement toward bad health as this approach is not organic and the soil soaked each growing season can only grow again with annual petrochemical applications.

The only solution to our food problem would be organic gardening and organic small farms surrounding and supply our cities. In my 1950s living on Long Island, it seemed that every property had vegetable gardens, orchards or both. Then the big box grocery stores came into being with trains, trucks and planes supplying the grocery shelves from long distances including overseas. Eating TV dinners and fast food became more amenable to the young while the older self-sufficient generations passed on. In essence, we deserted our agrarian past for the most part, as agricultural skills were not passed on to a generation that had become "modernized."

What can be done now? In warm areas of the U.S., Fleet Farming, with young people, has been formed with an approach to grow vegetables in raised beds on back, front, and side lawns wherever there is sun. Using raised beds with fresh soil and additives avoids growing on lawns that were previously medicated with petrochemicals. It is working and should spread to more parts of the U.S. [The owners of these lawns receive fresh vegetables and don't have to care for their lawns.]

The gardening and farming concepts must be re-introduced into our public school systems immediately with raised beds around the school property plus grow rooms inside schools and churches. Believe me, give a kid a seed, let it grow, and they become a captive audience forever. At least that was my experience.

Personally I have a seedling program, limited to ten people, where I give away tomato and pepper seedlings in the spring and seed garlic in the autumn. These ten people once had very small or no gardens; it has been a success, but I cannot supply the world.

40 maps that explain food in America
https://www.vox.com/a/explain-food-america