I beat the same dead horse yet again

I hate to keep hammering away at the same topic, but Ezra Klein recently returned yet again to his theory that expensive meat would make us all healthier (for my previous forays, see here and here ). He continues to be super-duper wrong.

The problem I think, is that he has decided that food is somewhat like petrol. So, if the price of gas (meat) rises, then people will either live closer to their jobs (grains) or will use public transport (fish, fruits, vegetables). What he doesn't seem to understand is that in the food arena, one has the choice to fill one's car with ultra cheap sub premium (doritos) that makes your car go really fast (tasty!) for a short time before breaking down (fat). And if you really push on prices, people are going to start putting coal in their cars (vat grown meat).

UPDATE: What's the real answer to the problem, you might ask? I don't know, but my guess is continue to value growth, make people richer, and then hope that people pick good food as a main aspirational goal, like getting a big television. In the meantime, we need to keep producing food to feed people, while ameliorating, to the extent we can, the worst aspects of industrial production.