Cost of Living - Shrinkflation is speeding up at an alarming rate

Rai200 said:
I mean, not that I'm agreeing with them but pulses, grains, lentils, tofu, tempeh, veg etc. is largely very cheap.

You don't have to buy ready meals/imitation meat.
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You don't have to, I agree - but how many of us often choose convenience when they can over the proper choice?

fez said:
Its also because they are super lazy. Normal food isn't that expensive. Making pasta sauces is cheap. Potatoes are cheap. Rice is cheap. Ultra processed food really isn't that cheap, its just easy and people hate the idea of taking responsibility for their diets. The number of poor and overweight people is shocking. Thats because their diets and what they spend money on is stupid and bad.
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Freefaller said:
I agree about people being lazy - but it's also lack of knowledge but also having these processed foods so readily available. The U-P foods are more appealing but also is around the similar price to all the other individual foods so people think it's cheaper.

It is true that there are a lot of poorer people that seem to be be overweight/unhealthy. There needs to be more education on there, or more control on nutrition quality for what is sold.
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The amount of people I come across on a daily basis that can barely write their own name, let alone do basic numeracy is shocking. There's a massive societal imbalance in deprived areas that a lot of people much better than I have been trying to teach the value of a home cooked meal and balancing the books properly, but that work is slow and largely unsupported.
 
GIBURROWS said:
That's what they're bred for.
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Oh thats makes it ok then, you could say the same for bullfighting, animals in fur farms, the dogs killed in china/nigeria for food, obviously you agree with all those practices.

Armageus said:
Not really.

I like eating meat because it tastes good. I can afford to eat meat.

Are there good tasting vegan alternatives - no doubt these days there are. Are the good tasting vegan alternatives reasonably priced? No in most cases they are more expensive, with only older/crap tasting versions available cheaper than meat e.g. generic veggie burgers Vs "beyond burgers" or "plant chef"

In a cost of living crisis, I'll buy the best tasting product that I can actually afford.
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We can justify doing anything because we "like it" im sure you can see why this isn't a good argument when you think about it.

I was suggesting if people are worried about the cost of living then eating more plant based options could be cheaper, (and youre not paying for animals to be stabbed) not necessarily buy beyond burgers or whatever but like someone else said, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, beans, these are cheap foods.

Gonna have sheperds pie tonight, just swapping out the animal flesh for lentils.
 
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eldergeek said:
You don't have to, I agree - but how many of us often choose convenience when they can over the proper choice?



The amount of people I come across on a daily basis that can barely write their own name, let alone do basic numeracy is shocking. There's a massive societal imbalance in deprived areas that a lot of people much better than I have been trying to teach the value of a home cooked meal and balancing the books properly, but that work is slow and largely unsupported.
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We have a massive educational issue and a lot of it is also slightly cultural - on the continent, certainly in the Med, you grow up learning how to cook from an early age.

Convenience is something that's hard to overlook in the societal construct we live in at the moment.
 
fez said:
Its also because they are super lazy. Normal food isn't that expensive. Making pasta sauces is cheap. Potatoes are cheap. Rice is cheap. Ultra processed food really isn't that cheap, its just easy and people hate the idea of taking responsibility for their diets. The number of poor and overweight people is shocking. Thats because their diets and what they spend money on is stupid and bad.
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Completely agree. Just watch any episode of Eat Well For Less. Jamie and Hugh did similar programs trying to get people to cook over convenience junk food.
Once you start down the path, it becomes a never ending spiral of eating poor food, no energy or motivation to cook, so you keep eating ultra processed junk.

Vegetables, pulses and a bit of fish meat isn't expensive. But requires effort to make it tasty.

As for lack of knowledge, there is literally millions of videos on instagram/tiktok/youtube showing how to make pretty much anything and everything. If you can afford a mobile phone, you can watch cooking tutorials for free.
 
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Freefaller said:
We have a massive educational issue and a lot of it is also slightly cultural - on the continent, certainly in the Med, you grow up learning how to cook from an early age.

Convenience is something that's hard to overlook in the societal construct we live in at the moment.
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I agree - I grew up learning to appreciate good food and the family unit, and I honestly think that's where it begins; but I meet so many people that have never had that and think it's funny or romantic when I talk about cooking my own food - it saddens me a little.
 
Nutty667 said:
Completely agree. Just watch any episode of Eat Well For Less. Jamie and Hugh did similar programs trying to get people to cook over convenience junk food.
Once you start down the path, it becomes a never ending spiral of eating poor food, no energy or motivation to cook, so you keep eating ultra processed junk.

Vegetables, pulses and a bit of fish meat isn't expensive. But requires effort to make it tasty.

As for lack of knowledge, there is literally millions of videos on instagram/tiktok/youtube showing how to make pretty much anything and everything. If you can afford a mobile phone, you can watch cooking tutorials for free.
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Cool. Get involved with your local food kitchen. I'm sure they'll appreciate more volunteers to help people less equipped in their food education evenings.
 
Johno please? said:
not necessarily buy beyond burgers or whatever but like someone else said, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, beans, these are cheap foods.
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None of those taste like a burger though? If I want a burger, then I want a burger

I don't like tofu, lentils or chickpeas so regardless of how cheap they are, it's irrelevant if I don't like eating them. I'm not going to make myself miserable eating stuff that I don't like.
 
Johno please? said:
I was suggesting if people are worried about the cost of living then eating more plant based options could be cheaper, (and youre not paying for animals to be stabbed).
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No you weren't. You are having a go at people that like to eat meat because you just can't help yourself...See the last part of your sentence above as a perfect example by bringing in the emotive language.

If you were REALLY being genuine and suggesting possible cheaper alternatives for food because of people's concerns about the CoL, you would have left your usual rhetoric out of the discussion and just suggested plant based options without the "stabbing animals" nonsense.

You're very transparent.


Johno please? said:
Gonna have sheperds pie tonight, just swapping out the animal flesh for lentils.
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Not really Shepherds pie then. Before you have a go - You realise its called Shepherds Pie because of the lamb in it. Not having Lamb in it means its not a Shepherds Pie in much the same way that having beef in it makes it a Cottage Pie.


Now - If you want to respond, please at least try and leave the emotively charged language out of it. It devalues any points you are trying to make.
 
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Freefaller said:
True, nuts are great though even for non vegans. full of fibre, protein and fats.

Unfortunately quite expensive.
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If you buy in bulk they're suprisingly cheap, for example from our supplier at work (1kg of each):

Cashews - £11
Walnuts - £8.40
Hazelnuts - £13.75
Almonds - £8
Peanuts - £5.24 (I know, not a nut technically)
 
Johno please? said:
Oh thats makes it ok then, you could say the same for bullfighting, animals in fur farms, the dogs killed in china/nigeria for food, obviously you agree with all those practices.



We can justify doing anything because we "like it" im sure you can see why this isn't a good argument when you think about it.

I was suggesting if people are worried about the cost of living then eating more plant based options could be cheaper, (and youre not paying for animals to be stabbed) not necessarily buy beyond burgers or whatever but like someone else said, tofu, lentils, chickpeas, beans, these are cheap foods.

Gonna have sheperds pie tonight, just swapping out the animal flesh for lentils.
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Never tried the lentil Shepard's pie, but yes it's all pretty cheap, I buy tinned chickpeas, big packs of frozen veg, lentils , my chickpea vindaloo is next level.
I do buy some processed vegan stuff but I picked up some expensive items like heinz been burgers for 35 p a pack ,farm foods not sure why so cheap but they had a freezer full.
That's where I mistakenly bought vanilla oat milk but tbh getting used to it
 
GordyR said:
They’re not the only ones, but the London School of Economics have done a fairly deep dive into this:



It was always fairly obvious that erecting barriers to trade was going to contribute heavily to food inflation. If you make something more expensive to import, the cost is always going to get passed on to consumers at some point.

No one cares how anyone voted at this point, but let’s not stick our heads in the sand and pretend that it’s not had a whacking great impact on our standards of living.

The paper itself can be found here: https://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/brexit18.pdf
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Well said
 
Freefaller said:
I agree about people being lazy - but it's also lack of knowledge but also having these processed foods so readily available. The U-P foods are more appealing but also is around the similar price to all the other individual foods so people think it's cheaper.

It is true that there are a lot of poorer people that seem to be be overweight/unhealthy. There needs to be more education on there, or more control on nutrition quality for what is sold.
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I'm sorry but its fundamentally laziness. I bet that every single one of the people who claim they don't know how to cook could tell you how to install insta/facebook/tiktok and get it showing you mind rotting content in 5 minutes flat. They just can't be bothered to cook and for some reason, we have accepted "I don't know how to do X" as a valid excuse despite everyone having the internet in their pocket. I can't help but feel that its a fear that everyone has of being accused of being out of touch or part of the landed gentry if you suggest that poor people have no excuse not to be able to cook basic meals.

eldergeek said:
The amount of people I come across on a daily basis that can barely write their own name, let alone do basic numeracy is shocking. There's a massive societal imbalance in deprived areas that a lot of people much better than I have been trying to teach the value of a home cooked meal and balancing the books properly, but that work is slow and largely unsupported.
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Of course it is. There is almost no incentive to learn how to cook for these people. Its a lot of effort compared to ordering takeaway or sticking a couple of things in the oven for 20 minutes.

Nutty667 said:
As for lack of knowledge, there is literally millions of videos on instagram/tiktok/youtube showing how to make pretty much anything and everything. If you can afford a mobile phone, you can watch cooking tutorials for free.
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Yep, makes me so fricking angry when people use "I don't know how" as an excuse. I could learn how to build a ******* rocket in a few days using the internet if I wanted to and I have no idea how to build a rocket. We've completely normalised people using this crappy excuse for why they don't do something and it needs to stop. Get off your arse, stop watching 3 hours of TV as you doom scroll yourself to bed every night and put a bit of effort into your health and your childrens if you have them.
 
r4 radio programme about air frying last month, 90% of cookbooks, last year making money, were about air fryers - that says plenty about the UK diet (and something about energy saving aspirations)

Haven't heard Keir talk about instituting the high fat and sugar product placement/advertising restrictions, but banning energy drinks for children will help (and their dental needs)
 
Food has been way too cheap for most of my life. For ages supermarkets have squeezed producers to keep prices low and protect/win market share. Producers had wiggle room by increasing yields (fertilisers, insecticides, tools/automation, farm practises etc) Now the producers' costs are rising so the supermarkets start to squeeze the buyers. Supermarkets have too much power. It is bad for domestic farming, bad for the environment, and bad for buyers...

e: missed apostrophe
 
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fez said:
I'm sorry but its fundamentally laziness. I bet that every single one of the people who claim they don't know how to cook could tell you how to install insta/facebook/tiktok and get it showing you mind rotting content in 5 minutes flat. They just can't be bothered to cook and for some reason, we have accepted "I don't know how to do X" as a valid excuse despite everyone having the internet in their pocket. I can't help but feel that its a fear that everyone has of being accused of being out of touch or part of the landed gentry if you suggest that poor people have no excuse not to be able to cook basic meals.



Of course it is. There is almost no incentive to learn how to cook for these people. Its a lot of effort compared to ordering takeaway or sticking a couple of things in the oven for 20 minutes.



Yep, makes me so fricking angry when people use "I don't know how" as an excuse. I could learn how to build a ******* rocket in a few days using the internet if I wanted to and I have no idea how to build a rocket. We've completely normalised people using this crappy excuse for why they don't do something and it needs to stop. Get off your arse, stop watching 3 hours of TV as you doom scroll yourself to bed every night and put a bit of effort into your health and your childrens if you have them.
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you don't have to apologise, I agree it is down to laziness but also ignorance - and I don't mean that in a nasty way, a lot of people just haven't had that exposure to "proper" cooking.

Sure they can look at the pariah that is social media, but people of that mindset of wanting to eat fast food/etc... are not likely to use SM to want to watch edifying stuff instead on random idiocy that often appears on SM.
 
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