The price of local produce?!
I try and buy things locally (and since I live in a farming community that is pretty easy) but it seems like local food is usually the same price, if not more expensive than non-local!. Why is that!? I've heard people in my neighborhood claim local food is cheaper than grocery store food, but it isn't!. I heard a statistic that the average price for free-range farm fresh eggs is $3 per dozen, but the egg man in my neighborhood sells his at the farmer's market for $4 per dozen!. This is nearly a $2 price increase from the typical old white eggs at the store (and his eggs do taste WAY better)!. But, are these farmers just jumping on the local food band wagon and taking advantage of people who want food made without fossil fuels!? Or do these foods warrent the extra cents because they weren't produced on an industrial farm!? With the rising cost of grocery store food, the local stuff has remained about the same price, but it is still more expensive!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
Answers:
Wow, this is a complicated situation!. It involves such things as legislation especially the Farm Bill and subsidies that make it cheaper for big companies to produce stuff but doesn't mean they are as healthy or as tasty!.
Growing on smaller levels is expensive and labor intensive and without subsidies or the ability to buy in a year or two ahead of time (locking in a low price which means the farmer that sold ahead of time is also making a low sell) it costs more!.
It's also important how much the inputs such as fertilizers and feed are which have all experienced huge increases in prices lately!.
A farmer can raise hens well on a few acres letting them run free and eat well or he could put them inside a building in tiny wire cages and get more eggs per square foot!. The first eggs are not only going to taste better but be much more nutritious and not be nearly as cruel!.
Industrial chickens are also fed some horrific things such as render cow by-products!. They are given antibiotics so they can survive the conditions they live in and arsenic as a growth promoter which is toxic to humans and builds up in us (as mercury does) and contaminates our ground and waterways!.
It also depends on whether a crop is labor intensive or not!. Strawberries are harder to harvest than potatoes!. But farmers are not making a lot of money no matter what anyone says!. Most income in farm families comes from off-farm employment!.
From Three Springs Farms comes this about whether Supermarkets are cheaper than Farmers Markets:
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We began to wonder, are our prices really that much more expensive!? They do not seem outrageous to us!. We decided to put that question to the test!.
We selected three area supermarkets with which to compare our farmers’ market prices: an organic/health food chain, Wild Oats, as we grow organically (though not certified); the most widespread grocery store in town, Albertsons, as it has eleven locations throughout the city; and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market with their reputation of low prices!. We visited all three stores once in May and once in July of 2005!. We went to each store on the same afternoon, as we realize produce prices fluctuate from day to day!. With each visit, we made a list of the items on our farmers’ market table that week and noted the grocery store’s price!.
We started our project in early May with the Wal- Mart Neighborhood Market!. The first item on our list was romaine lettuce!. At the lettuce section of the produce aisle we saw that they were charging $1!.38 a head while we were charging $2!.50 (which includes sales tax)!. On the surface, Wal-Mart seemed cheaper, but those were tiny lettuce heads!. We took the lettuce over to the scale, and were shocked to find it barely weighed one pound!. Our romaine weighed three pounds, and was greener, had fewer culled outer leaves, and had none of that tale-tell sign of old produce-wilt!. Thus, we refined our research by noting both the price and the weight of each item!. When adjusted to a price per pound basis, Wal-Mart’s lettuce would have cost $4!.49 if it weighed as much as ours did!.
Of course, there are the specialty items not grown commercially and only found at our market stand that we could not compare, such as mizuna or baby lima beans!. Not every store had the same selection!. Overall, Wal-Mart had fewer items than Albertsons or Wild Oats!. We compiled the weight and price of 22 spring items and 20 summer crops that we and the grocery stores offered in common!. From this data we created a table that calculated the price per pound!.
Our farmers’ market is located in Tulsa, OK, and as an average American city in the middle of the country, it seems like a suitable reference point!. All of our prices include sales tax, therefore sales tax was figured into the table’s metric!. However, we are still not dealing with a level playing field with Wal-Mart and Albertsons produce as it is not, for the most part, organic!. And needless to say, the difference in quality and freshness of local produce is priceless, as evidenced by the photo of the collard greens we could not help ourselves from buying from Wal-Mart!.
Analyzing the data on a price per pound basis yielded interesting results!. While much of what people buy in the grocery store has a cheaper price tag than what they purchase at our market stand, in nearly every case the grocery store food weighed significantly less!. This gives meaning to the expression, “you get what you pay for”!. Additionally, not everything has a cheaper price tag in the grocery store, such as basil and heirloom tomatoes which are both dramatically higher!.
====Www@FoodAQ@Com
Growing on smaller levels is expensive and labor intensive and without subsidies or the ability to buy in a year or two ahead of time (locking in a low price which means the farmer that sold ahead of time is also making a low sell) it costs more!.
It's also important how much the inputs such as fertilizers and feed are which have all experienced huge increases in prices lately!.
A farmer can raise hens well on a few acres letting them run free and eat well or he could put them inside a building in tiny wire cages and get more eggs per square foot!. The first eggs are not only going to taste better but be much more nutritious and not be nearly as cruel!.
Industrial chickens are also fed some horrific things such as render cow by-products!. They are given antibiotics so they can survive the conditions they live in and arsenic as a growth promoter which is toxic to humans and builds up in us (as mercury does) and contaminates our ground and waterways!.
It also depends on whether a crop is labor intensive or not!. Strawberries are harder to harvest than potatoes!. But farmers are not making a lot of money no matter what anyone says!. Most income in farm families comes from off-farm employment!.
From Three Springs Farms comes this about whether Supermarkets are cheaper than Farmers Markets:
====
We began to wonder, are our prices really that much more expensive!? They do not seem outrageous to us!. We decided to put that question to the test!.
We selected three area supermarkets with which to compare our farmers’ market prices: an organic/health food chain, Wild Oats, as we grow organically (though not certified); the most widespread grocery store in town, Albertsons, as it has eleven locations throughout the city; and Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market with their reputation of low prices!. We visited all three stores once in May and once in July of 2005!. We went to each store on the same afternoon, as we realize produce prices fluctuate from day to day!. With each visit, we made a list of the items on our farmers’ market table that week and noted the grocery store’s price!.
We started our project in early May with the Wal- Mart Neighborhood Market!. The first item on our list was romaine lettuce!. At the lettuce section of the produce aisle we saw that they were charging $1!.38 a head while we were charging $2!.50 (which includes sales tax)!. On the surface, Wal-Mart seemed cheaper, but those were tiny lettuce heads!. We took the lettuce over to the scale, and were shocked to find it barely weighed one pound!. Our romaine weighed three pounds, and was greener, had fewer culled outer leaves, and had none of that tale-tell sign of old produce-wilt!. Thus, we refined our research by noting both the price and the weight of each item!. When adjusted to a price per pound basis, Wal-Mart’s lettuce would have cost $4!.49 if it weighed as much as ours did!.
Of course, there are the specialty items not grown commercially and only found at our market stand that we could not compare, such as mizuna or baby lima beans!. Not every store had the same selection!. Overall, Wal-Mart had fewer items than Albertsons or Wild Oats!. We compiled the weight and price of 22 spring items and 20 summer crops that we and the grocery stores offered in common!. From this data we created a table that calculated the price per pound!.
Our farmers’ market is located in Tulsa, OK, and as an average American city in the middle of the country, it seems like a suitable reference point!. All of our prices include sales tax, therefore sales tax was figured into the table’s metric!. However, we are still not dealing with a level playing field with Wal-Mart and Albertsons produce as it is not, for the most part, organic!. And needless to say, the difference in quality and freshness of local produce is priceless, as evidenced by the photo of the collard greens we could not help ourselves from buying from Wal-Mart!.
Analyzing the data on a price per pound basis yielded interesting results!. While much of what people buy in the grocery store has a cheaper price tag than what they purchase at our market stand, in nearly every case the grocery store food weighed significantly less!. This gives meaning to the expression, “you get what you pay for”!. Additionally, not everything has a cheaper price tag in the grocery store, such as basil and heirloom tomatoes which are both dramatically higher!.
====Www@FoodAQ@Com
those foods that the farmers sell is a croc of bull, there's big difference in their produce, and the store's, the farmers are just trying to squeeze s much money as they can from consumers!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
urban city dwellers pay much more for groceries than rural people because of urban inflation, so when rural farmers markets come to town they seem much cheaper, but in rural areas there won't be a huge difference!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
It is costing him more money as well with the increase in fossil fuels including driving to the farmers market!. He also has to pay rent at the market!. Have you considered driving to his farm!? Probably would not be economical to do that though!.
His costs have gone up in other ways his feed corn has doubled in price in the past year, since we have decided we should use a food product to drive our cars!. His costs for it pound per pound are much higher then that corporate farm that can buy by the ton!.
The taste of those eggs are worth it though I am sure, I know the ones I get at my farmers market are!.Www@FoodAQ@Com
His costs have gone up in other ways his feed corn has doubled in price in the past year, since we have decided we should use a food product to drive our cars!. His costs for it pound per pound are much higher then that corporate farm that can buy by the ton!.
The taste of those eggs are worth it though I am sure, I know the ones I get at my farmers market are!.Www@FoodAQ@Com