>>509126400
>What's crazy is that less processed food costs more
It depends on what you're comparing. You also have to consider that they use a lot of cheap filler ingredients, such as starch, water and sugar to increase the weight of the product while adding nothing of value. Or they use artificial flavorings to replace real ingredients. This makes the product seem cheaper than it actually is, you're paying for starch and water and fake flavor.
One example is packaged marinated barbecue meat. It's far cheaper to buy those than actually buy meat+barbecue sauce, but only because they're stuffed with starch and water to increase the weight considerably, thereby reducing the price per kilo below that of just meat. So it seems cheaper but you actually get less of what you actually wanted and you're paying extra for water and starch (both extremely cheap).
There is of course the bulk price that adds into this equation. If you buy milk in bulk for example, you pay 20-40 cents per liter, but if you buy milk at a store here you pay 80-120 cents per liter. The same also applies to everything else you can buy really, the more you buy the less you pay. Companies that process foods buy everything in bulk.
However, bulk dried grains, legumes and starchy vegetables are extremely cheap. Frozen vegetables are also cheaper than fresh because they can be stored longer.