In fact, McDonalds and Chipotle are doing much more to promote sustainability than the typical home cook is.
I don't see what your point has to do with the cost of cooking in vs. cooking out. At least 'kingkongrevenge has a meal plan to offer us. =)
I'm talking about massive, direct economic subsidies for the kinds of crops that tend to go into prepared foods vs. the comparative absence of massive, direct economic subsidies for the kinds of crops that tend to be the ingredients of home cooked meals. (The actual ingredients of home-cooked meals vs. their prepared equivalents are rarely even remotely similar.)
I hope what this has to do with the cost of cooking ingredients vs. eating prepared food is self-evident.
$2 for breakfast. Three eggs scrambled in plenty of butter. Some nuked frozen berries in half a cup of whole plain yogurt. Five minutes prep.
$2 for lunch. Some celery, a can of sardines, and a large glass of half&half. Zero prep time, aside from rinsing celery.
This is roughly what I eat and there is no way you can save time or come close to matching the cost at restaurants or even with pre-packaged food. I don't even go to the grocery store: peapod drops my list off every two or three weeks.
Also: a glass of half and half? Really? I get the milk carb thing, but why not just drink something with no carbs or fat?
It's more about convenience and I what I like, actually. No real effort to each cheap. I like eggs and I like whole fat dairy. And in truth I do often eat cod or flank steak or whatever, so up the daily cost by maybe 50%, but it's still peanuts compared to eating out.
> a glass of half and half? Really?
I go through half a stick of butter, a glass or two of half&half, and some whole fat yogurt daily. First, it's delicious. Second, dairy fat is frickn diesel. You can run on all cylinders for ages.
I agree, don't eat Wendy's (it will also kill you), and I salute you for operating almost entirely on dairy fat, but I think my point stands: it isn't necessarily or even likely cheaper to cook than to eat out.
For food of the same quality, cooking at home is cheaper. The absolute minimum cost of either food is comparable (corollary: there is worse fast food available than you could cook yourself).
I'm not saying this should be a regular responsibility, but they should be capable of it.
I wish my parents had let me cook more. I recovered in college and now I cook a lot, but there was no reason I should have needed to wait until I was not in the dorm anymore.
I learned to cook because I grew up in a house where meals were cooked, not ordered out. I was making simple dishes and baking cakes on my own by age 10. Likewise, my 9 year-old son is learning to cook from me. He likes helping and the look of pride on his face when I let him make up a batch of meatballs from scratch (everything except putting them in the oven) because I was busy with something else had to be seen to be believed.
Even something as simple as letting a child mix some ingredients helps. They learn mise en place, how to use kitchen tools properly, basic kitchen hygiene and the overriding idea that everyone can cook!
Peeling potatoes with my 4 year old is a test of nerve though - suprised I still have all my fingers left (I hold the spuds, he attacks with the peeler!). I'm aiming for him making cooked breakfast by 7 and meals by the time he starts high school. By then he'll be messing around with sharp knives and fire by himself so no reason why he can't do that and be productive ...