Aside from living with it as part of what we do for a living, I've researched it thoroughly.

Here we have one of the unhealthiest populations in the country, and it isn't because healthy food is more expensive than crappy food. In fact, it's the other way around. We have food deserts here too, but that's a different subject. The vast majority of people eating unhealthy diets in this country do not live in food deserts. But anecdotally, our farmers market is in a food desert, very easy walking distance from poor neighborhoods, and with prices cheaper than the grocery store (exceptionally cheaper if food stamps are used). Yet very few take advantage of it. One of our food stamp customers is a vegetarian and can't possibly eat as much food as he can get with his stamps at the 2 for 1 market price, so last year he used the stamps to buy extra to give to his neighbors in order to encourage them to start shopping there too. Last week he told me that he has quit doing that, because even though they were always thankful for the food, they still kept spending their money on junk food instead. They never came to the market. His words, "It's cultural." I know a woman who lives in an impoverished neighborhood in Asheville. She was so disgusted at the "candy trucks" (mobile vendors selling junk food and cigarettes) coming into her community that she got a grant and started a program with a food truck bringing super low priced organic veggies into the neighborhood. She says the people still spent their money at the candy trucks instead. When we were filming the videos for my book the videographer said he'd like to eat better but that healthy food was too expensive. I took him to the grocery store and showed him that I could buy healthy food for a week on less than $10. He was astonished. I also showed him that it was much cheaper to buy the ingredients for a McDonald's hamburger and make it yourself than it is to buy it at Mickey D's. I could go on and on. Bottom line is that this is an educational and cultural problem, not a price problem.

By the way, I just checked and a 12 oz bag of frozen mixed veggies at Walmart in Philly is 92 cents. A 19 oz bag is $1.78.