It's a Wonderful Life #5

Reader's Digest John Tierney explains:

#5. The horn of plenty
"The royal dinners of Versailles might have had glitzier place settings, but Louis XVI would gaze enviously at the food in a middle-class home or restaurant today: kiwifruits from New Zealand, South African peppers, Thai pineapples, Italian gelato. He'd be amazed, too, at the way we take fresh produce, fish, and meat for granted in every season.
The king's subjects, of course, would be even more envious. France was one of the world's richest countries in the late 18th century, but the average Frenchman consumed less than 2,000 calories per day--about the same level as people in the world's poorest countries consumed in the middle of the 20th century. Today, the typical person in a poor country consumes 2,700 calories daily, a nutritional improvement made possible by farmers growing more food at lower cost.
While the occasional food shortage or price spike grabs our attention, the long-range trend is what really matters. While incomes have risen since 1950, the inflation-adjusted price of food has declined by 75 percent, according to the World Resources Institute. So it represents a smaller and smaller portion of our paychecks.
Food is so plentiful that in many countries, the old concerns about hunger have been replaced by worries about obesity."