Friday, March 14, 2008

Is a Recession Good for Nutrition?

As I commented somewhere, maybe on Grist, because I see organic food as a niche market, a "positional good" (not really--I just looked up "positional good" on wikipedia), a marker of one's wisdom and general probity (though I don't know whether Gov. Spitzer ate organic and local) it's likely to be hurt in a recession. People have less money, focus more on the basics and less on the frills, so will be less likely to patronize Whole Foods and more likely to go to Safeway.

But on the other hand, I saw an item this morning saying that people had cut back on going to restaurants. If more people are cooking at home, maybe nutrition will go up?

One wonders.

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