I guess I was raised in a bit of a hippy-healthfood kind of family--sure there were occasional 'happy meals' but no solid habit formation. and then life went on, and I worked at a local foods restaurant and on an organic vegetable farm. I became a vegetarian because I loved vegetables, and it was just easier to explain "I don't eat meat" then "I'd prefer to just eat vegetables" (that and the meat industry is horrifying). so vending machines are kind of my antithesis (not to mention their troubled relationship with schools and food in schools): purely packaged food, who knows how long it's been in there, or how long it will be? Visits to vending machines are usually pits of desperation or despair. But I may have to give vending machines a second chance.
In the square, next to the open air market in Ljubljana were two odd boxey machines: the first dispensed raw milk (raw milk!?). you can either bring your own bottle, or buy one from the machine (plastic or glass). for 1 Euro/liter--which I haven't gone back to the supermarket to check prices, but it doesn't seem out of line (the internet tells me a liter usually goes for .92Euro, so). and you can buy it in basically any quantity you want (only have 20 Cents? buy 2 deciliters of milk!). and the second sold filtered and unfiltered apple cider (oh my god so amazing). cheese, jogurt. All from what appeared to be small suppliers, at a local level. 
Yes--the only things that were missing were a loaf of fresh bread (which you could buy in the market--so not too big of a deal) and human interaction. the human component is a huge part of the appeal for me of things like farmers markets--and a vending machine will never replace that. but to think that I could satisfy my craving for a glass of raw milk at any time of day is just kind of beautiful.now if only they had one of these vending machines in the airport.
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