This must be a generational thing because my mom, who is now 74, cooks the same way as a few of the other moms mentioned. Everything is processed, canned/tinned. She doesn't make anything from scratch. I didn't know what fresh garlic looked like till I moved to France in the 70's. Her favorite casserole is the 'green bean casserole' with canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and canned 'fried' onion rings mixed together and baked.

She thinks I'm weird because if I want cooked carrots, for example, I buy the carrots, scrub them, slice them and boil them for a few minutes. "Why don't you just open a can?"   She thinks it's very strange if I bake an apple pie and make the filling of fresh sliced apples sprinkled with a little cinnamon and sugar, when I could buy a can of apple pie filling.

She has always cooked like this even though when I was growing up we lived on a farm and raised our own vegetables. She cooked the fresh vegetables (well overcooked, really) because my dad insisted but she really resented it and would slip in canned or packaged stuff whenever she could.

I would say that in most places in the US there are now plenty of choices for fresh vegetables, organic produce, good bread and cheese etc. When I was growing up it was a different story - it was Wonderbread, processed cheese, etc. Now there is a good selection of natural and organic food in most supermarkets, even the small ones.