Changing diets also mean changing perceptions about 'cheap' food. High carbohydrate and sugar-based diets may fill bellies and be cheaply available at point of sale, yet are strongly associated with obesity and diabetes.
They are 'cheap' because they are easily produced, moved around and stored for long periods before consumption. There are large profits made on their re-processing and sale, satisfying human cravings and meeting short-term hunger needs.
Yet cheap is a relative term. Why are we still not including the healthcare costs of non-communicable diseases caused by bad diets into the overall costs of production and consumption? In the USA for example, the total value of the agriculture industry is $374 billion p.a., yet the healthcare cost of diabetes is around $500 billion (Harvard & WEF)
The emphasis in agriculture is still way too much on the production end - producing more of such food types has become a mantra - often even including state subsidies to do so, yet ignoring the real costs entailed. This is without even considering the considerable environmental and societal costs of their production systems compared to alternatives.
We need to re-think and re-imagine our entire agri-food systems, their real costs and their drivers, not just our diets.
Mark Holderness