Low quality American food - Why?

As I travel around the world it is impossible to ignore that the food in the US is very expensive and very low quality. I am referring specifically to the food in the chain grocery stores and chain restaurants that dominate food distribution in the US. I know that there are islands of good places to get food in Manhattan and other major cities, but this is a tiny fraction of the food that people in the US eat.



So, why is it that a wealthy consumer capitalist society has gravitated to such low-quality and expensive food? The US has a massive infrastructure for food production, so how does it get things so wrong?