when my mother was a kid, back in the early 50s her immigrant father was laid off and her mother had to work as a part time secretary to support the family of 4 children. she said back in those days, you could go to a place and get what they called "commodities" (possibly because the farm price support programs have names like "Title X Commodity"?). it was essentially lump agricultural products depending on your family size. butter/milk/cheese, meat, flour, etc. she said her father had a lot of "issues", but for all that, he was a great and enthusiastic cook.

in school i learned that this program was part of a popular, new deal bargain struck between the agricultural producers (of which there used to be very many) and the need to feed the hungry. the government would support a price floor for a variety staple goods (dairy, flour, meat) and always buy at that rate. growers liked that security, and these goods would be minimally processed and provided to the needy.

obviously, this couldn't last because capitalism. i believe Nixon and his SecAg (Earl Butts) were among the first to really knock some pillars out of it, switching the price support system to one of direct payments to encourage the highest possible harvests of grains, but also allowing the price point of harvested grains to be pushed way down. eventually the "government cheese" became food stamps that could be used on shelf stable (highly processed) products made by grain processors (Cookie Crisp, Pop Tarts, etc). of course, ready-to-eat foods means workers can be worked longer hours with minimal home labor needs for preparation. and, not to mention, the extremely cheap grains can be dumped on other countries to fuck with their agricultural sectors or those of neighbors, which can be the significant, if not largest labor force in these regions.

and this is the broad strokes story of how our food system, which used to feed people, became weaponized against the workers at home and abroad.