This may be an outrageous thought process, but I genuinely wonder if the comparative wealth of the 60s and 70s kids contributed significantly to the loss of knowledge on how to make decently nutritious food for cheap.
My parents were well off, mostly as a result of being born when they were. My mum tried to cook but never really had to contend with how to get by with the odd bits of food, ends of vegetables, etc. Now that it's 2024, I'm finding that my grandmother's old recipes are supremely more practical than my mother's recipes because they don't rely on having only the premium meats and only the best parts of the vegetables. I wonder how much cultural and culinary knowledge was diminished as a result of a generation or two of high food waste.
That's certainly true.
I've been making my own broth recently and while its low effort it's definitely kinda slow. Every so often I'll get a costco rotisserie chicken and when it's done, use the carcass for broth. It always gives good results, but ultimately those costco broths are reasonably cost efficient and much more time efficient.
I definitely am trying to increase my flexibility in terms of what I can cook with to cut down on food waste.