I am deep into a great book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver.It is a bitter sweet read. It is hard to read so many depressing facts. Ignorance is bliss. Until this book, I never realized how much fossil fuel it takes to get some foods to your table. The cost to bring foods from other states and countries is insane. Who thinks about this while eating? Well...now I do. I have a few excerpts/facts that I want to share and then I will explain the above photo. Yes, it does need explanation.
-Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refridg.'s as our cars
-We consume around 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen (the amount used to transport)
-Getting crop from see to harvest only takes one fifth of the total oil used for our food. The Lion's share is consumed during the trip from the farm to your plate.
The fact that really opened my eyes was the next one-
"If every U.S citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 MILLION barrels of oil every week."
So...organic loving local loving rich hippies really DO have a reason for buying the over priced organic foods? Wow. You mean other than being able to regally announce that something is "organic" aka gourmet....etc. there is a good REAL substantial reason to eat this way? Now, don't get me wrong. If I had a choice between organic and chemically dusted, I would choose organic assuming it was the same price. I mean.....I "know" it's supposed to be better for you, but it's like with the whole DVD movement, I won't change unless, I am forced too. Well......now I have a food conscience. Every time I do not buy organic or local, my food will look gross and I will feel guilty for wasting more of our precious resources that we have so little of.
Most of you probably have thought that since I am a foodie that I cook organic, well, no.
Again...if it comes down to a choice and the price is better, i'll go with the cheap.
Alright, enough ranting. I could seriously go on and on. It reminds me of when I read Fast Food Nation and got rid of all the meat in my home and didn't touch it for months.
So to the picture above. I have decided to take the eat organic/local once a week. Completely organic/local for one meal down to the littlest details ( except salt and pepper).
Tonight as you can see above, we are having a chicken, potatoes, onions and carrots.
Here is the cost comparison break down.
6lb organic local chicken- 15.45
organic baby red potatoes 3.99 a lb so about 4.50
cioppini onions - 3.99 a lb- 2.00
organic local carrots 4.50 a package (ps. did you know that baby carrots are just normal carrots that are whittled down by a lathe??)
organic rosemary 2.99 a package
organic local garlic 1.29 a lb. so .50
local white wine that I wont even drink! (9.99) (for flavor and moisture)
Total for local organic meal for 7 - 34.43 divided by 7 that's about 5.00 a person. Not bad.
For non organic regular food?
6 lb chicken at .69 a lb. - 4.00
red potatoes- 2.50 a lb- 3.00
cioppini onions- .99 a lb .50
carrots- .99 a bag
rosemary- 1.99
cheap white wine 2.99
total for regular meal- 13.47 between 7.....around 2 dollars!
So okay, it's about double but still not breaking the bank. As I research meals more, we may even be able to squeeze out another local or organic meal or two.
What are your thoughts on buying local and organic? I would love to hear.
Happy eating!
6 comments:
$34 compared to $13? Almost triple? $15 for one chicken?! I maybe could do it for one meal a week, but never all the time. I already spend too much on groceries. I can't imagine spending almost 3x as much. I would love to buy local, organic food, but it is definitely a cost issue for me!
I am so with you on this! We both have kids to feed and boy it gets expensive! Especially when they are teenagers---try buying a gallon of organic milk every other day! I wish we could do it but it just isn't in the bank account :(
It is a very tough subject. I think for me it comes down to cutting meat out as much as possible. Meat tends to be expensive. Growing a garden is a big help, as Barbara talks about in the book. Canning and freezing the produce for the winter is a great idea too. I grew up doing this. Trying to get this all in is the real challenge for me.
Food is a huge expense. I think local is best, but you have to do what you can. I like your idea of a once aweek local meal. You could also try a local
meatless night too:)
I'll have to read this one, Katie.
Well, I buy organic almost all the time, and I don't even think about the price difference anymore (I hesitate to say this, because I've also spent years watching a budget very closely and I know I'm lucky to be able to spend more now).
But one way we keep our food costs down is by buying very little meat.
Other than that, we look at food costs as being part of the price of preventative health care. (Knock on wood).
We actually don't eat meat regularly,but it does seem that in the colder months, we do eat it more.
We eat meatless at least 3 days a week. Jenny, I totally dont intend on spending this much again. I do like the idea of preparing a locally grown meatless meal. The kids really wanted chicken!
Katie,
I hope you don't think I was criticizing you. I am very impressed that you are doing this and it was nice to see the cost comparison. I always knew organic is more expensive, but I think it just shocked me to see the difference in prices, especially the meat. You're right, "Ignorance is bliss."
I'd love to see some of your meatless recipes.
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