> quality of fresh produce in US very bad compared to India
I agree. (Though you can access similar quality at American farmers’ markets and upscale grocers in rich communities.) I never remarked on quality. Just efficiency.
Indian agriculture is small scale, labour wasteful, land and water inefficient and carbon intensive. Relative to median income, produce is high cost, which causes a lot of the population to over-rely on processed cereals.
High-income Americans and Indians consume a lot of good, fresh produce. (I’ve seen fresh Indian mangoes in New York, flown in overnight, though I’m doubtful they had their paperwork in order. That obviously isn’t scalable.) The absolute threshold is lower in India. But relatively speaking it’s higher.
> We generally consume a lot of fresh produce as compared to the western world
At a high relative income level, yes. (Lower in cities, because logistics.) There are good reasons Indian life expectancy is 15% lower than America’s at birth, 2 to 5% lower at 30 (males, reverse death probability) and then 20% lower again at 40 again.
I agree. (Though you can access similar quality at American farmers’ markets and upscale grocers in rich communities.) I never remarked on quality. Just efficiency.
Indian agriculture is small scale, labour wasteful, land and water inefficient and carbon intensive. Relative to median income, produce is high cost, which causes a lot of the population to over-rely on processed cereals.
High-income Americans and Indians consume a lot of good, fresh produce. (I’ve seen fresh Indian mangoes in New York, flown in overnight, though I’m doubtful they had their paperwork in order. That obviously isn’t scalable.) The absolute threshold is lower in India. But relatively speaking it’s higher.
> We generally consume a lot of fresh produce as compared to the western world
At a high relative income level, yes. (Lower in cities, because logistics.) There are good reasons Indian life expectancy is 15% lower than America’s at birth, 2 to 5% lower at 30 (males, reverse death probability) and then 20% lower again at 40 again.