Measurements, data, charts & percentages: The New Normal America... ??

I'm kind of fascinated by this.

Not that I want to analyze it or anything ;)

The New Normal America: A Country where Eating and Drinking Is The New Manufacturing

The title of the article sharing this chart is one of those IsNess statements I tend to dismiss.. it's just a chart, with two populations overlaid against each other.  One went up, one went down.  Where's the others?  Include, for example, self-employed and unemployed trends along with this, right? 

Or the really trendy one, UNDERemployed.

So to me, the sad part of this is that the Earth is being plundered by agricultural behemoths, raping her for profit to the shareholders because, well, it's there for the taking, yah?  If you don't get it, someone else will, or it will get spoiled, or any other reason we use to justify taking more than we need.  I can honestly say I know many people who have said something to this affect, to me, out loud, and recognized it as thougt patterns which I have actively worked to remove from my being.

We could be growing our own food, healthy organic food as the best fuel ever for our bodies/minds/spirits...  that we tend and raise and honor and put strong intentions for well-being into... while expressing gratitude for having great food and great lives... by caring for the soil that provides it, and the waters that gather nutrients to nourish it, and the air that carries their seeds and our life's breath.

Sometimes I wonder if he meant, Give us this Day our daily Breath.

Because, after I did that Atkins Diet back in early 2000's-ish, I still like bread and all however I know I actually CAN live without it.

However, this chart does provide sillious food for thought.  Why are so few people showing up in the study as 'making stuff as their registered JOB' now, and so many more people spending soooo much time and money eating out and drinking??

I personally don't have a problem with the concept of 'manufacturing jobs declining'..   do we really need to define our health or sustainability by how many of us are making STUFF?  Is there some sort of comparable study on how much @ home 'making' is now occurring through hobby, entrepreurial endeavor, and the re-use of outmoded materials from manufacturing days of old?

Nom Nom Nom....  chewing on it!!