A social norm that I have experienced is saving money, especially when you are a student. This means buying cheap food. A lot of cheap food is usually not the best for you and is usually found at fast food restaurants. Everybody says they lived off Cup of Noodles when they were in college and it is considered normal to follow an non nutritional diet. Since fast food restaurants are readily available and usually open 24/7 then it makes it easier for people to choose that option. Also when you are a student you usually do not have the time or energy to make a healthy meal from scratch everyday so the cheap fast food becomes very appealing and usually tastes good.

Cheap food is linked to mass produced homogenous crops. It is cheaper to produce industrialized crops that all have the same gene code, therefore, people eat at the cheap price they want. However, when there is little biodiversity there is a higher chance that a disease can wipe out most or all of the yield. A severe decrease in yield can cause a famine. It is interesting because the reason for monoculture industrialized crops is to decrease starvation and make food more accessible while at the same time risking to cause a famine. Also industrialized crops tend to be higher in sugar and fructose which means that cheaper food tends to be less healthy for you. So as long as people keep demanding cheap food we are going to keep growing homogenous crops that are not providing the nutrition we need.