Rising Food Costs Caused by Standard American Diet

Rising food costs are becoming a worldwide problem, and a large part of the persistent run-up in food prices can be directly linked to the growing adoption of the SAD diet in other countries. The rising cost of food has been linked to many political upheavals in the past year, but very few commentators have been willing to state what many in the vegan community know to be an obvious fact, the SAD diet is simply too resource intensive to feed the world.

It not just unsustainable in the context of a diet that can feed the world, it is unsustainable in terms of our own country, and is in large part responsible for our need to import massive amounts of oil. If the true cost of producing food were considered, then the market should push consumers to choose more sustainable options, because they should cost less. Unfortunately, government subsidies create market distortions that create cheap prices for items that are expensive in terms of resources used.

We now live in a world where one-third of the population is overweight, while at the same time one-third of the world is starving. Encouraging the adoption of a plant-based diet can go a long way towards solving both of these problems.