Is the Rising Cost of Food Forcing Us to Change Our Diets?

[TheStatutoryApe]

I don't have much trouble keeping my food costs down. I usually spend about $50 a week at the grocery store for myself and if I really tried I could probably make it even less. I usually buy lots of pasta, if it is on sale I stock up. Same with pasta sauce. I also have a large tub of rice. One large bag of rice normally costs only about $15 and will last for months depending on how often you eat rice.

 

[Proton Soup]

That is a funny typo.

dairy also makes some people more stationary.

 

[hypatia]

I count on the meat we get from hunting. I still have a lot of venison and rabbit. Turkey season opens in a few weeks, I hope to do well then too.

I also buy in bulk things like rice, pasta, oatmeal and bread flour. I shop at several smaller stores for fresh produce, and go to the farmers market for great deals on sweet potatoes, beets and squashes.

I have always shopped like this. I even make most of my own pet foods, it took a bit of trial and error but they seem to like it.

 

[Pythagorean]

Ok, I take it back. I went shopping today. 25% more than usual.

 

[cronxeh]

Well what do you people expect? They increased money supply, so in the long run the price levels go up. This was self evident over a year ago. Time to be mad and rioting was when they decided to bail out banks. Now its too late, we've been had, pass the KY gel.

I had to go to the store today to pick up a new prescription and they had asparagus on sale for 99 cents! It was a large bunch and even looked fresh. I grabbed the next to last one, I saw a woman barreling down on me with her shopping cart, pupils dilated and her teeth bared, so I figured I'd let her have the last one.

Yeah those you don't want to mess with

 

[GeorginaS]

When prices are low, example whole fryer chickens for $1 each, we buy several

During and after the holidays when Turkeys are practically free (they are free with grocieries at many stores and others they are cheap)

In all of my adult life, I have never seen food sales like this, here. I've seen it in the States, but not here.

The best sale on meats that I think I've ever seen was really, really recently. A local grocery store was having a one-day, in-store special of hams that generally cost around $35.00 for $9.99. Oh and one year, on December 26 I went shopping to purchase perhaps a turkey part for myself, because I live alone and can't manage a whole turkey and hadn't had turkey the day before. The store I went to had whole turkeys for about a fraction of their regular cost, because they'd thawed them for Christmas and hadn't sold. So I bought a few and dropped them off at a local soup kitchen because the birds needed to get cooked right away and eaten, and the charity could do that.

Other than those few incidents, though, I don't think I've ever seen super good deals on fresh foods and especially meats.

 

[CRGreathouse]

It's because the government indirectly subsidizes the production of low quality, cheap, and unhealthy foods like oreos, chips, and soda.

Please expand on this point.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Please expand on this point.

Perhaps the best way to do that is to link tonight's edition of, NOW, on PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/523/index.html

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Please expand on this point.

In particular I think that he is referencing government subsidization of corn which has apparently led to the over use of corn syrup sweeteners, highly inexpensive due to subsidization of corn, which are rather unhealthy.

 

[Proton Soup]

Well what do you people expect? They increased money supply, so in the long run the price levels go up. This was self evident over a year ago. Time to be mad and rioting was when they decided to bail out banks. Now its too late, we've been had, pass the KY gel.

i expect bread and circuses

 

[gravenewworld]

Please expand on this point.

For the gist:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/fast-food-anoth/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/14/AR2006031400312.html
http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2008/08/how_corn_makes.html
http://www.forbes.com/2010/01/10/food-labels-obesity-fat-tax-opinions-columnists-michael-maiello.htmlsubsidies
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200759,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/dining/04farm.html

If you are really interested read:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0971570639/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[turbo]

In all of my adult life, I have never seen food sales like this, here. I've seen it in the States, but not here.

Supermarkets often feature "loss-leaders" like cheap prices on bulk packs of chicken just to get people in the door, then expect to make it up on pre-packaged foods, frozen and canned goods, dairy, etc. Around Thanksgiving, if you spend maybe $50 or $75 or so on groceries, you can get a small turkey free or at a very cheap price. There are often seasonal specials on other meats, like corned beef for St. Patrick's Day and ham for Christmas and Easter. This is a very rural area and people often drive 20-50 miles one way to do their weekly shopping. If a store offers really good deals on meat or poultry, people will often pass up their regular store and do their entire week's shopping at the store with the cheap meat.

 

[GeorginaS]

Here in Argentina the real inflation -as opposed to "official" which isn't internationally recognized- is about 30% by year. A few weeks ago the price of meat increased by 30% in a day. It will never go down. Meat consumption decreased but it can't really decrease by a lot since meat is one of the most consumed food. When I came here in 2006, a kilogram of tomatoes was worth about 2 pesos. It has gone up as high as 18 pesos/kilo in a month (900% inflation) but is now around 8. Everything, absolutely everything has increased drastically and will continue to increase. The poverty has consequently also increased.
So to answer the question posed, I can afford to eat, but not a lot nor what I'd "love" to eat. I'm thinking about fishes, beef meat now, chocolates and vegetables. In other words, it's hard and most of the time I don't have a dessert, like today. I used to eat a lot when in France or Canada but here I usually (unless I'm lucky and I have some rest of the last night) eat once a day -at night- and I drink a cup of milk in the morning (I used to eat some croissants which coasted 35 cents, but they're worth 1 peso each now so I don't even consider it).

That was a sobering post. It's expensive to eat properly, here, but at least I'm fortunate to be able to do it. I forgo other purchases to have more money available for food, however, I'm not cornered into not eating. Truly an accident of birth.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I found Food, Inc. lowbrow and uninformative.

In particular I think that he is referencing government subsidization of corn which has apparently led to the over use of corn syrup sweeteners, highly inexpensive due to subsidization of corn, which are rather unhealthy.

Ah. Also important for that is the government's high price floor for sugar.

 

[Astronuc]

Congrats! Don't slide into the Ramen noodle trap!

One way to avoid that is to buy a few pounds of ground beef, pork and chicken (and fish), divide those into small individual portions and freeze them. Then one can use with noodles or pasta, and vegetables and/or soups.

Beans, corn and rice with mixed vegetables can give most of what one needs nutrition wise.

One can avoid sugary and processed foods.

 

[Moonbear]

Maybe it's a regional thing. I really haven't noticed any huge increase in the price of food. Yeah, there is some fluctuation on what people decide are the "popular" cuts of meat that raise the prices of those, but then whatever become "unpopular" goes down. I avoid all the over-priced "trendy" stuff like the organic food section. The only pack of chicken I've seen for $9 is the giant family-sized pack that would feed me for two weeks (I will buy it, because I can freeze everything I'm not eating fresh in a day or two).

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

I wouldn't be surprised by a short-term spike in produce prices right now, though. With all the cold and snow hitting the southern growing region, and also hindering travel along trucking routes, there may be some short term shortages in supply of produce, or poorer quality with frost damage. But I primarily switch to frozen vegetables for winter anyway.

 

[Evo]

I avoid all the over-priced "trendy" stuff like the organic food section. The only pack of chicken I've seen for $9 is the giant family-sized pack that would feed me for two weeks (I will buy it, because I can freeze everything I'm not eating fresh in a day or two).

I avoid the organic section also. Skinless, boneles chicken breasts are $4.99 a pound, so the package was probably less than 2 pounds. I'd like to know how she found such cheap corn dogs.

 

[edward]

I avoid the organic section also. Skinless, boneles chicken breasts are $4.99 a pound, so the package was probably less than 2 pounds. I'd like to know how she found such cheap corn dogs.

To make matters worse a lot of chicken and other meat is injected with water to make it heavier.

http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/7258756.html

 

[Evo]

To make matters worse a lot of chicken and other meat is injected with water to make it heavier.

http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/7258756.html

I've been dying to make some corned beef, but I can't find any that don't say that they have 35% water added. You start off with a slab about 10" by 6" and when it's cooked you have a piece about 5" by 3", the corned beef has a fair amount of fat that cooks out also. The first time I cooked one after they started this practice, I looked into the pot and was certain someone had taken half of the meat out and eaten it.

 

[Astronuc]

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

I wonder if the blight had anything to do with it.

I wouldn't be surprised by a short-term spike in produce prices right now, though. With all the cold and snow hitting the southern growing region, and also hindering travel along trucking routes, there may be some short term shortages in supply of produce, or poorer quality with frost damage. But I primarily switch to frozen vegetables for winter anyway.

I have heard that folks should expect prices of fruit and vegetables to increase as a result of the freezes in Florida and other southern states.

Increases in oil prices will also increase the cost of producing and transporting food.

 

[DaveC426913]

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

Strange. My wife (who cannot eat peppers due to an anaphylactic allergy) has noticed that peppers are being put into everything nowadays, as if they're a filler.

 

[turbo]

Maybe it's a regional thing. I really haven't noticed any huge increase in the price of food. Yeah, there is some fluctuation on what people decide are the "popular" cuts of meat that raise the prices of those, but then whatever become "unpopular" goes down. I avoid all the over-priced "trendy" stuff like the organic food section. The only pack of chicken I've seen for $9 is the giant family-sized pack that would feed me for two weeks (I will buy it, because I can freeze everything I'm not eating fresh in a day or two).

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

We have seen some drastic price-increases in some of our favorite foods. Fresh Atlantic salmon (wild or farmed) haddock, halibut, and cod are all through the roof, as are Atlantic scallops. Fresh seafood is now a luxury, not a regular purchase. Most beef prices are not soaring, but the quality of the meat is terrible (and dropping) in supermarkets. I believe much of the "choice" cuts are heavily over-graded, because the meat is poor quality. The USDA is really falling down on the job. Luckily, a custom butcher shop opened not far from here, and they can match or beat supermarket prices using grass-fed native beef. The service is fantastic. I got a call from the butcher's wife today, letting me know that they would not be able to offer ox-tail anymore. Apparently the slaughterhouse has a standing order for them, and they don't pass them on to the butcher shops anymore. Still, we can get nice low-yield cuts like flat-iron steaks, and get a phone call when they've set some aside for us.

Thanks to the really low-grade meats in the supermarkets putting price pressure on the little butcher shop (mostly due to the clueless who don't appreciate the super quality of the beef in the little place) we have been able to get much better-grade beef at very stable and low prices. That's a plus that helps offset the sting of spiking seafood prices.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm going to clean up the old chicken house and get a couple of hens. Nothing like homegrown eggs. I probably can't beat the cost of store bought eggs, with the feed cost and all, but they're going to be oh so good.

And hopefully this year will be good for the garden. That will save some money.

 

[turbo]

I've been dying to make some corned beef, but I can't find any that don't say that they have 35% water added. You start off with a slab about 10" by 6" and when it's cooked you have a piece about 5" by 3", the corned beef has a fair amount of fat that cooks out also. The first time I cooked one after they started this practice, I looked into the pot and was certain someone had taken half of the meat out and eaten it.

Most commercial poultry and pork have "water added" too, and that includes glutamates and other additives. Even worse is the adulturation of Atlantic scallops. They are soaked in water, with thickening agents to make the water stick to the scallops. When you are paying top dollar for fresh seafood, you're a fool to pay the same for the added water. The only way around this is to demand "dry" scallops, decide if you can pay the price, and demand to get a good smell of them before they load a plastic tub of them for you. If they do not smell very sweet and rich, they are not fresh and/or have been previously frozen. Run away.

 

[waht]

I don't eat a lot anyways. I've lived for $20 bucks a week, not including Heineken. Eating lots of rice, and spaghetti and almonds. It's cheap except the almonds. Once in while I will go for a $20 bucks steak spree, or chicken wings.

This year I plan to go on pilgrimage to Amarillo for their 70 oz steak. hhhmmm

 

[turbo]

I'm going to clean up the old chicken house and get a couple of hens. Nothing like homegrown eggs. I probably can't beat the cost of store bought eggs, with the feed cost and all, but they're going to be oh so good.

And hopefully this year will be good for the garden. That will save some money.

Good luck with that, dlg. I have thought about building a coop for just that reason. I've already got a good-sized garden. Add in some laying hens and some broilers and there's a lot of fresh protein. If I thought that the chickens would patrol the garden and eat the bugs without wandering out into the road, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Some close friends of mine keep guinea hens, and they are prolific layers. They are also noisy, and are escape-artists extraordinaire.

 

[dlgoff]

I've had chickens many time over the years. At one time I had a dozen layers and a couple of roosters. Problem is, too many eggs. Two hens is just about right for two people.

I have an area penned off so they can leave their house and roam outside and still be protected from the foxes.

I don't think you would want them in your garden, as they can scratch and do a lot of damage. And you're right about the guineas; I feel like shooting the pair that lives around here sometimes.

 

[gravenewworld]

You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what? It is far easier to raise more criticisms about the typical food found in grocery stores than how many criticisms you could level against organic foods. I think there is no dispute that the idea behind organic foods is good, however the concept has been high jacked by huge factory farms and the message of organic production and consumption has now been convoluted. Buyer beware.

Btw organic foods are more than just about eating food that hasn't seen any pesticides, antibiotics, or raised in a environmentally friendly matter. Its also about preserving our diversity of food. Factory farming has nearly wiped out many different breeds of livestock and produce. Different breeds of livestock have very different taste qualities. The typical turkey you buy at the grocery store for thanksgiving tastes like flavorless cardboard after you've tried a heritage turkey. The same can be said with chicken. I don't see what's trendy or gimmicky about preserving the diversity of our food at all. Personally I like he idea of preserving more foods because it gives me a braoder range of flavors to choose from. But hey, if you are content with only being able to only eat 2 or 3 types of tomatoes, 1 type of corn, 1 type of chicken, 1 type of turkey, etc. etc. then that is simply a matter of your tastebuds dull opinion, nothing more. There's nothing trendy about organic food and their often broader, more diverse range of flavor. If an organic farmer never grew those types of produce and livestock they probably would have went extinct a long time ago.

 

[turbo]

I have an area penned off so they can leave their house and roam outside and still be protected from the foxes.

I have a good friend who had a nice enclosed space for his chickens. It was good enough to keep the chickens in, but not good enough to keep the raccoons out, and he was losing birds at a rapid clip until he figured it out. Obviously, it wasn't foxes or weasels, etc because the birds were missing. The 'coons would break into the place, kill the birds, and lug them off to eat them elsewhere.

 

[dlgoff]

I have a good friend who had a nice enclosed space for his chickens. It was good enough to keep the chickens in, but not good enough to keep the raccoons out, and he was losing birds at a rapid clip until he figured it out. Obviously, it wasn't foxes or weasels, etc because the birds were missing. The 'coons would break into the place, kill the birds, and lug them off to eat them elsewhere.

And it's really hard to keep a big old black snake from getting in and eating the eggs too. I caught one getting eggs once and took him a couple hundred yards down by the woods. Then a couple year ago I found the old boy. Now's he's a good 6 foot long and as big around as my arm. When I caught him this time he had 4 blue jays in him. I took him back to the woods. Kind of like the old boy.

 

[turbo]

You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what? It is far easier to raise more criticisms about the typical food found in grocery stores than how many criticisms you could level against organic foods. I think there is no dispute that the idea behind organic foods is good, however the concept has been high jacked by huge factory farms and the message of organic production and consumption has now been convoluted. Buyer beware.

Btw organic foods are more than just about eating food that hasn't seen any pesticides, antibiotics, or raised in a environmentally friendly matter. Its also about preserving our diversity of food. Factory farming has nearly wiped out many different breeds of livestock and produce. Different breeds of livestock have very different taste qualities. The typical turkey you buy at the grocery store for thanksgiving tastes like flavorless cardboard after you've tried a heritage turkey. The same can be said with chicken. I don't see what's trendy or gimmicky about preserving the diversity of our food at all. Personally I like he idea of preserving more foods because it gives me a braoder range of flavors to choose from. But hey, if you are content with only being able to only eat 2 or 3 types of tomatoes, 1 type of corn, 1 type of chicken, 1 type of turkey, etc. etc. then that is simply a matter of your tastebuds dull opinion, nothing more. There's nothing trendy about organic food and their often broader, more diverse range of flavor. If an organic farmer never grew those types of produce and livestock they probably would have went extinct a long time ago.

Some very good points. I garden organically, and I buy organic untreated seeds from a a local source that does their best to support farmers that preserve heirloom varieties of vegetables. Without this diversity, we would fall prey to Monsanto's plan to flood the market with hybrids that fail to breed true or produce viable seed.

I don't save and propagate seed, but there are plenty of organic farmers in this area that do just that. They are being threatened by Monsanto, though, which just got approval to market another variety of BT corn in the state. With inadequate buffer-zones, GM crops can contaminate heirloom crops and render them infertile. Not good.

 

[Evo]

You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what?

They are trendy and overpriced and most have no idea what they're doing. Moonbear can tell horror stories about the conditions of the animals at some of these so called "organic" meat farms.

I happened to grow up living close to a small farm oned by an elderly couple down in Texas. They grew vegetables and sold eggs. I think I was 5-6 when Pa Tingle showed me how to candle eggs. He'd take me through the fields and explain to me why he'd grow certain types of crops together and about crop rotation. He had cool weather vegetables growing around the corn in summer.

The people around the corner from us shot anything they saw and we we're invited over for dove and squirrel. My dad's friend always gave us venison every year that he hunted. My first husband hunted rabbit on his friend's ranch. (I love rabbit)

Then I had an aunt and uncle in Tampa, Florida that were commercial farmers. They had citrus orchards and strawberry fields. They added a chicken ranch with about 100,000 chickens.

My current meat connection shoots wild turkey, pheasants and deer. He's meticulous in handling the meat. So, I've been brought up around farms and hunters all of my life and I absolutely will not buy out of the organic section of my local supermarket because I have absolutely no idea how this stuff is raised or processed.

 

[gravenewworld]

Sorry for the bad typing btw, Iam doing this via mobile.

 

[GeorginaS]

The only pack of chicken I've seen for $9 is the giant family-sized pack that would feed me for two weeks (I will buy it, because I can freeze everything I'm not eating fresh in a day or two).

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

I wouldn't be surprised by a short-term spike in produce prices right now, though. With all the cold and snow hitting the southern growing region, and also hindering travel along trucking routes, there may be some short term shortages in supply of produce, or poorer quality with frost damage. But I primarily switch to frozen vegetables for winter anyway.

Two boneless chicken breasts, here, will cost you over $9. $9 won't purchase a family-sized pack of anything chicken. Not even thighs. I don't know why, but chicken is crazy expensive here. When I got to visit friends of my on the west coast, I'm always astonished at how much less chicken costs there. And especially because this is an ag province.

I haven't noticed anything in particular getting more expensive in the past year or two, it just seems to be an overall thing. It costs more and more every time I go to the supermarket and my buying habits haven't changed. And I don't buy whole bunches of pre-packaged processed stuff. (Ever notice that most of that stuff tastes like chemicals?)

 

[cronxeh]

I donno why you guys mention food cost. I blow close to 200 bucks a week on coffee, beer, and soda.

You work hard, you play hard. If you don't have the money, get a job!