cost and consequences

The common wisdom is Americans spend less for food per capita than anyone in the world.  Of course, this does not take into account the enormous subsidies the government showers on the country's largest agri businesses.  Still, as my Canadian friends tell me, the staples like milk and bread are more than twice as expensive across the border.  That, along with the strong Canadian dollar is one of the reasons Quebec license plates dominate the parking lots in Plattsburgh every weekend.  Most of the time, vegetables are "cheaper than dirt" also.   Using only raw, unprocessed goods and doing all the processing and cooking yourself, the average family can probably eat for a week for a hundred dollarss.  Meanwhile, most shopping carts I see are filled with highly processed, value added stuff which will add to America's obesity statistics.  Then people complain their food budget does not go as far as it used to.  This is all tangental to the point I was trying to make.  Namely, that cheap food, like cheap gas is something American's take for granted, although they pay a high price for both commodities between government subsidies and the defense budget.  Perhaps if the real cost was added at the checkout counter, their would be more of an outcry for accountability.  Instead, we have political entertainers like Newt Gingrich telling us we should be paying $2.50/gallon for gas...