From APM American Public Media and WNYC This is Freakin' onics Radio on marketplace. Here's a host of marketplace high-res dog Time now for a little freakin' onics radio that moment every couple of weeks We talked to Stephen Dunder the co-author of the books and the blog of the same name It is the hidden side of everything. Dunder how are you man? Kai I'm great.
Thank you All right, nice to nice to talk to you like riddles. Don't you guy? I do all right Let me try something out on you then a listener of ours I found named Ralph Thomas recently asked us to weigh in on what he calls quote the cheapest most nutritious and bountiful food that has ever Existed in history he says it's got 390 calories 23 grams of protein substantial portions of calcium iron and it costs only a buck or two So Kai Riz doll let me answer this what food is Ralph talking about? It's gotta be like tofu or soy or some kind of thing, right?
God you're smart. Oh, you're wrong, but you're wrong also It's it's the McDonald's McDouble hammer. No, it's not it is this is Ralph's argument So and you responded the way a lot of people respond We actually brought in a bunch of Mc Doubles here at WNYC from the staff and this was definitely not a McDonald's crap check this out All right, not nutrition at all zero nutrition. I would say from zero to kale technically there are pickles So I think you're vegetable.
They're not like real pickles You know, I mean it's like to be down somehow has engineered their own version of the pickle They're you know a piece of sinecky for American mass bland synthetic corporatism All right, so a couple of things one sinecky good word too I always did like McDonald's pickles and number three come on that's like the public radio crowd you heard the lady zero to kale Come on that is exactly right and that's kind of my point The more I thought about Ralph Thomas's question again Whether the McDouble is the cheapest most bountiful and most nutritious food ever Yes, the more I realized that how you answer that question says a lot about how you see the world not only our food system But also the economics of it and even social justice. Whoa, dude. Where is it coming from? Well?
We set up a little debate on McDouble between two people I'd like to play some of that one one is a health food activist the other is a sort of scholarly farmer the activist is Tom Phil pot He's a food columnist for mother Jones and he says sure the McDouble is cheap But that's because the price does not factor in all the external costs in order to present to us all that two dollar burger You're talking about a vast army of working poor people and that doesn't even get to the farmer who grew the corn and soy Yes Okay So on the other side is Blake Hurst who is a corn and soy farmer and he's the president of the Missouri Farm Bureau Hurst points out that this vast army of working people are also consumers who benefit from low prices It's pretty easy to say everyone ought to get paid more I'm in favor of that particularly in my own case But pay is only good in so much as what it can buy and what you can buy is a McDonald's cheeseburger for just a little over buck and almost fourteen thousand restaurants and that is a good thing Alright, so so value judgments aside, that's the cheap part of this equation What about the bountiful thing you were talking about well as Blake Hurst points out You know fourteen thousand mckydees in the US alone We can pop in whenever you need a burger and this highlights a larger issue that he feels is is wildly overlooked the biggest unreported story Of the last three quarters of his entry this increase in availability of food for the common person and you know It's all given that right. I mean that is generally speaking a good chance around nowadays without fun and food Mm-hmm. That's right in most places. That's absolutely true according to the global food security index at the economist publishes The United States is number one in the world meaning food is very bountiful now That comes with its own problems, of course.
Alright, but don't listen if the point of the original question is that if you had a bunch of people to feed cheaply And you wanted to feed them, you know, at least reasonably well Yeah, what would you give them it was the answer? Well, here's Tom Phil Potts very mother jonesy idea You get a pound of brown rice organic and a pound of red lentils for about a two bucks each and a serving size I cup each of those things would be about 75 cents. Okay, so that's that and here's how Blake Hurst the farmer sees things Yeah, but I rest my case I'm sorry there is no amount of marketing that is gonna make me prefer brown rice and lentils over a McDonald's cheeseburger Alright, well, so maybe he's got a point who won the debate though, dude I'll let your listeners decide, you know, as you see people have very strong opinions about stuff fact-based or otherwise in my own home I've got one kid who loves McDonald's and another who will not go anywhere near it But that's how it kind of goes with these things So I guess I I've got a call Tom Phil Potts back to get some nice recipes for lentils and rice I got a few more Good luck on that Steven Dider, freeeconomics.com is the website Dider will talk to you soon. Thanks, Jeremy.
Okay Hey pockets listeners coming up on the next free economics radio We've got a summer reading recommendation that I promise you won't hear anywhere else He was taking her to a cafe He was taking her to the airport and then got to the point where he was taking her to the hotel to go to bed with her And he even was kind enough to give her some of his ammunition for her guy That is from the Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure published by the US Department of Defense. Yep government officials behaving badly That's next time on free economics radio