Cheap eats come at a price

"What cost us was being cheap”. Following the scandal of dioxin found in eggs and meat in Germany, Der Freitag focuses on "rotten food" [junk food]. Admittedly, the Germans have never spent less for food, i.e. 11 percent of their budgets, much less than the French or the Italians. "The Germans eat in a fairly democratic manner," says the Berlin weekly. "They do not transform their eating habits into outward shows of wealth. That's why you can see fur coats at the Aldi checkout if the champagne is good." However, Der Freitag notes, the consumer who picks out the cheapest products cannot be blamed for provoking "the mixing of fatty acids meant for paper production into animal feed." The system in question here: the big supermarket chains squeezing farmers to produce ever cheaper food. A phenomenon, says the newspaper, supported by the EU and its subsidies for intensive agriculture in Western Europe.