Vegetable consumption blues

Prices for vegetables this winter have in general been below the cost of production in most cases.  Lettuce at $6.00 FOB Yuma, Az.  Works out to about $.50 per head delivered to NY.  Of course, after markups, consumers seldom pay less than $1.99 for that head of lettuce, so despite the horrendous losses being racked up by growers, consumers still have not benefitted from the bloodbath.  Had growers actually been making money, I doubt salad lovers would have wanted to shell out $4.00 for that same head of lettuce.   Which brings me to the question posed by the lack of  fresh vegetable consumption:  have we reached the saturation point?   Although prices for canned and frozen veg have also risen, they are still priced well below their fresh counterparts.  Stagnating wages for most Americans have led to sticker shock in the produce section.  If fresh veg becomes a luxury only the rich can afford, there will be some drastic downsizing of  the industry.