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Local fluff on KD
Normally I go far afield to quote stories about things that amuse me - but here's one from my local paper about how sales of Kraft Dinner are going great:
***
When wolf's at the door, Kraft does cooking
By Pam Freir, Times Colonist
January 14, 2009
"So, how's it going?" I asked my high-flyer contact in the advertising business. My concern for his welfare went unspoken: Do you work on General Motors? Yikes! Are you worried about your job?
"Business is booming!" was the euphoric response.
In this wretched time of economic woe? What business "booms" as the stock market implodes? The answer is Kraft. Kraft is his account. And it seems that the Kraft juggernaut surges ever onward and upward. Why? I was baffled.
The ad guy explained: "Because Kraft -- Kraft Dinner, specifically -- did a landmine business in the '30s when it was introduced. And it's going gangbusters now. Times were tough then. Times are tough now. And cheap, filling food is the order of the day."
What a chilling thought. Are we doomed to shelter in the Kraft Dinner bunker as they did back in the '30s?
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese -- that fill-'er-up dinner for pennies-a-serving -- was made for lean, mean times. It was the straggle end of the Great Depression, a fragile period of pre-war uncertainty. Thrift was the order of the day.
Kraft Dinner (KD as it became known in Canada) was launched in 1937, the same year as Spam and Krispy Kreme doughnuts -- harbingers all of our impoverished future if ever there was one. Five years later, in 1942, food rationing was introduced in Canada and the slogan of the day was: "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. And do without." It all sounds disturbingly familiar in today's climate of economic turbulence. It sounds like the makings of another KD heyday, here and around the world.
Experts warn that the postwar era of plentiful, affordable, nourishing food has ended -- squeezed by the demands of a growing world population, a greater appetite for meat among emerging middle classes in China and India and the pressure on agricultural land from biofuel production. The World Food Program estimates that the cost of food staples has risen by 83 per cent in three years, and in July of last year, Britons were being warned that food is once again in a precarious wartime state -- a prospect with tummy-churning implications: ration books, canned beans on toast, squirrel tail soup and carrot fudge.
And although experts predict that "junk food will continue to be readily available," wholesome, nutritious produce is fast becoming a global scarcity. The World Food Program doesn't mention that all too familiar, cheap and cheerful fallback, Kraft Dinner, but we know for sure it's waiting in the wings of the nation's pantry. On the "junk-food" side of the ledger.
In Britain during wartime it was not only considered immoral to waste food, it was illegal -- an old-fashioned idea whose time, perhaps, has come again. I'd be slapped in jail for sure, with all the incriminating evidence the authorities would need stacked against me in my fridge: the slushy avocado, the tub of forgotten rice, a furry lemon, a shrivelled beet.
My punishment should be tough and clear: either find productive, nourishing ways to resurrect the stuff that's languishing in my kitchen, or be condemned to a diet of Kraft Dinner until I die. Of shame. Or malnutrition. Whichever comes first.
There's no possibility of the world running short of fake food. Kraft has created a veritable smorgasbord of KD spin-offs since its glory days of 70-odd years ago: mac and cheese spirals, Cheesy Alfredo, Twist-ums, Scooby-Doo and Spongebob Squarepants; there's Bistro Deluxe, white cheddar with broccoli, and microwavable snack-packs for between-meal fillups.
And if I go off my KD grub, there's always Cheez Whiz, Kool Aid, Dream Whip, Jell-O, Velveeta and animal crackers. We might get sick. But we won't go hungry.
We just need reminding of the Kraft cornucopia in these worrisome times. Which, of course, is where advertising comes in.
pam@gulfislandswireless.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
***
Yeha, I know, it's horribly written (I hate this kind of chirpy I'm-just-an-overeducated-housewife kind of stuff) and I apologize for subjecting you to it, but relate this to the earlier story on how the Hormel factory is churning out Spam as fast as it can be stuffed in the cans (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/192681.html). As I noted, Spam is almost twice the price of ground beef, pound for pound, and I am sure you can make your own Kraft Dinner out of fresh ingredients as cheap or cheaper than the pre-packaged one. Lessee (dairy prices from Statistics Canada, Vancouver area, for 2008):
Simplest Mac n' Cheese
about 200 g macaroni: 35 cents (@ $1.60 or so for a 900g package)
1/4 cup (60 g) margarine: 22 cents (@$1.65/454 g)
1/4 cup (60) g grated fresh medium cheddar cheese: 98 cents (@ $16.28/kg)
Total: about $1.55
Kraft Dinner
cost of box: about $1.95 (the real item, at Safeway)
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk: about 10 cents (@1.59/litre, 2% milk, 1 litre container)
1/4 cup margarine: about 22 cents, as above
Total: about $2.27
Obviously, not included in the above were the electricity needed to cook the macaroni, or any of the other things (ketchup, pepper, frozen veg, etc.) needed to make it palatable, as they would be equal.
I know you can go cheaper than this by buying generic KD, etc. but the point is made: that it is cheaper to make your own "junk food" at home, and healthier, even with the large recent rises in fresh food prices.
***
When wolf's at the door, Kraft does cooking
By Pam Freir, Times Colonist
January 14, 2009
"So, how's it going?" I asked my high-flyer contact in the advertising business. My concern for his welfare went unspoken: Do you work on General Motors? Yikes! Are you worried about your job?
"Business is booming!" was the euphoric response.
In this wretched time of economic woe? What business "booms" as the stock market implodes? The answer is Kraft. Kraft is his account. And it seems that the Kraft juggernaut surges ever onward and upward. Why? I was baffled.
The ad guy explained: "Because Kraft -- Kraft Dinner, specifically -- did a landmine business in the '30s when it was introduced. And it's going gangbusters now. Times were tough then. Times are tough now. And cheap, filling food is the order of the day."
What a chilling thought. Are we doomed to shelter in the Kraft Dinner bunker as they did back in the '30s?
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese -- that fill-'er-up dinner for pennies-a-serving -- was made for lean, mean times. It was the straggle end of the Great Depression, a fragile period of pre-war uncertainty. Thrift was the order of the day.
Kraft Dinner (KD as it became known in Canada) was launched in 1937, the same year as Spam and Krispy Kreme doughnuts -- harbingers all of our impoverished future if ever there was one. Five years later, in 1942, food rationing was introduced in Canada and the slogan of the day was: "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. And do without." It all sounds disturbingly familiar in today's climate of economic turbulence. It sounds like the makings of another KD heyday, here and around the world.
Experts warn that the postwar era of plentiful, affordable, nourishing food has ended -- squeezed by the demands of a growing world population, a greater appetite for meat among emerging middle classes in China and India and the pressure on agricultural land from biofuel production. The World Food Program estimates that the cost of food staples has risen by 83 per cent in three years, and in July of last year, Britons were being warned that food is once again in a precarious wartime state -- a prospect with tummy-churning implications: ration books, canned beans on toast, squirrel tail soup and carrot fudge.
And although experts predict that "junk food will continue to be readily available," wholesome, nutritious produce is fast becoming a global scarcity. The World Food Program doesn't mention that all too familiar, cheap and cheerful fallback, Kraft Dinner, but we know for sure it's waiting in the wings of the nation's pantry. On the "junk-food" side of the ledger.
In Britain during wartime it was not only considered immoral to waste food, it was illegal -- an old-fashioned idea whose time, perhaps, has come again. I'd be slapped in jail for sure, with all the incriminating evidence the authorities would need stacked against me in my fridge: the slushy avocado, the tub of forgotten rice, a furry lemon, a shrivelled beet.
My punishment should be tough and clear: either find productive, nourishing ways to resurrect the stuff that's languishing in my kitchen, or be condemned to a diet of Kraft Dinner until I die. Of shame. Or malnutrition. Whichever comes first.
There's no possibility of the world running short of fake food. Kraft has created a veritable smorgasbord of KD spin-offs since its glory days of 70-odd years ago: mac and cheese spirals, Cheesy Alfredo, Twist-ums, Scooby-Doo and Spongebob Squarepants; there's Bistro Deluxe, white cheddar with broccoli, and microwavable snack-packs for between-meal fillups.
And if I go off my KD grub, there's always Cheez Whiz, Kool Aid, Dream Whip, Jell-O, Velveeta and animal crackers. We might get sick. But we won't go hungry.
We just need reminding of the Kraft cornucopia in these worrisome times. Which, of course, is where advertising comes in.
pam@gulfislandswireless.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist
***
Yeha, I know, it's horribly written (I hate this kind of chirpy I'm-just-an-overeducated-housewife kind of stuff) and I apologize for subjecting you to it, but relate this to the earlier story on how the Hormel factory is churning out Spam as fast as it can be stuffed in the cans (http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/192681.html). As I noted, Spam is almost twice the price of ground beef, pound for pound, and I am sure you can make your own Kraft Dinner out of fresh ingredients as cheap or cheaper than the pre-packaged one. Lessee (dairy prices from Statistics Canada, Vancouver area, for 2008):
Simplest Mac n' Cheese
about 200 g macaroni: 35 cents (@ $1.60 or so for a 900g package)
1/4 cup (60 g) margarine: 22 cents (@$1.65/454 g)
1/4 cup (60) g grated fresh medium cheddar cheese: 98 cents (@ $16.28/kg)
Total: about $1.55
Kraft Dinner
cost of box: about $1.95 (the real item, at Safeway)
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk: about 10 cents (@1.59/litre, 2% milk, 1 litre container)
1/4 cup margarine: about 22 cents, as above
Total: about $2.27
Obviously, not included in the above were the electricity needed to cook the macaroni, or any of the other things (ketchup, pepper, frozen veg, etc.) needed to make it palatable, as they would be equal.
I know you can go cheaper than this by buying generic KD, etc. but the point is made: that it is cheaper to make your own "junk food" at home, and healthier, even with the large recent rises in fresh food prices.
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Gee, thanks!
But I fear a soy ersatz version of mac and cheese would not be as cheap as KD.
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It probably would be. Better off with a stir fry or lentils instead of ersatz frankenfood anyway.
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I've just finished writing a very long article on the Spanish Civil War. During the war, the Nationalists (fascists) seized Spain's main food-producing regions early in the war, and the Republican side was left with oranges (Valencia region) and lentils, which everyone grew to hate the taste of - they were called "Dr. Ramirez's Little Pills", after the then Minister of Health. (at least I think Ramirez was the name, all my books are packed now)
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I had a teacher in high school who would get mad at it too. She used to lecture the students about buying a bag each of potatoes, onions and carrots and bones, in order to make a week's worth of soup.
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In the new place I will have to start a garden all over again, and a compost heap too. But there will be fresh vegetables or at the very least herbs for the kitchen. And probably no deer problems either...
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