This is awesome. Reminds me again: the distinction between households and firms can hide the fact that households are economic units. Same goes for the gradual shift of food processing from household/community/family networks to the marketplace (pretty much entirely a female job in both cases) as the value of time use has shifted. We tend to think of food processing in relation to 'processed food', but that's only a tiny element of it. Any firm that does something as simple as cleaning vegetables is doing a resource-heavy job, as anyone de-mudding garden produce knows.

Breaking down the whole thing into time input, everyone still does a little food processing at home - except when they outsource the whole thing and go to restaurants. Also reminds me: been interesting watching that in action as friends have moved from entirely shared cooking at festivals toward buying from stalls. That's outsourcing processing as money has become proportionally less valuable compared to time. Though festival breakfasts are still a self-organising wonder to behold. As far as I remember anyway - perhaps after the PhD when I'm allowed out of the house again...