Why Is Your Food So Expensive?

[CandySueQ]

One thing we can all do is conserve what we purchase! I buy in bulk, vacuum seal and freeze. I prep a big batch and freeze in smaller servings. Here in SE Arkansas, we do have a local, employee owned supermarket that is great and our other grocery chain is out of Texas.

[DaveD]

Getting a vac sealer was a game changer for me!

[au4stree]

I live in a metropolitan area so our availability to real farmers is minimal. One thing I miss about my home town is the REAL farmers market, my parents are regulars there. All the farmers know them and hold back special tomatoes, cantaloupe, berries you name it. That is why you shop local, relationships matter.

[Bogy]

I have benefited greatly over the years from "retired" farmers who can't keep their hands out of the dirt. I stopped trying to have my own garden long ago. They are much better at it than I am. If they don't have enough to share with the pastor I might as well not bother. I'm more productive using my time fishing than weeding.

[Bad Hat BBQ]

This is a great thread.
I am a big fan of CSAs (Community supported Agriculture) and I am selective when I buy produce at Farmer's Market (some vendors are NOT farmers and get produce at various distro centers)

Despite some challenges with local Farmers Market, I will say that they are pretty generous and donate veggies to our food pantry. ( half bunches of lettuce or greens, individual onions or carrots, etc- but it is a nice addition to the canned goods that we hand out)

If interested, "The Third Plate" by Dan Barber discusses the food problem at length and has some ideas on how good farming and food management.

[JoeSousa]

I was driving across northern Iowa on Hwy 20 a couple days bad and was amazed at the miles and miles or corn fields that didn't look like they were manageable by a single operation. Definitely.a diffefentn system than what most think

[Bogy]

Should have stopped to say hi! Although I'm a little further from 20 than I used to be. People who haven't driven through Iowa, or other corn & bean states, have no idea. There are those who want an end to raising corn, especially as animal feed. What do they think farmers are going to switch to? Broccoli? Kale? Or just give up land their families have farmed for 150 years and let the land lie fallow?

[Bkhuna]

I doesn't help that the US allows foreign nations, some openly hostile towards us, to buy up farm land, use our water and resources, and then ship the products overseas. Whey do we stand for this?

[tamidw]

We get our beef from a neighbor up the street about 3/4 miles from us. He’s a small farmer that raises cattle and has some of them butchered each year. We watch them graze every day as we pass by.

[Bogy]

I love watching my T-Bones out in the pasture munching grass.

[tamidw]

Haha! We go by cattle out in the field and joke saying, mmm, look at the yummy t-bone on that guy! 🤣

[JLR]

Back in the day when I had some cattle, my kids named one of them T-Bone. No secret what that cow was for.

[Richard Chrz]

So, I think I continue to spend less money. I find just understanding flour, various fats, potatoes, rice, beans. And being frugal with your proteins by buying bone in and saving the bones to make soup stocks, use flour and egg to make your noodles, oven roasted potatoes and carrots. Make your own yogurt, your own mayo, your own etc… your own sauces, and bases. I like to look at my meal plans for the week, and make the ingredients that I will need, and not more than I need, so there is no food waste. We don’t buy too many things that are already processed by someone else.

You can get a lot of meals off one whole chicken.

I’ve come to the belief cooking with a sense of economy, can really push your dollars out.

[Bogy]

We had pork ribs several weekends in a row, and I wanted something different for Father's Day, so I smoked a turkey (and forgot to take any pictures) for six of us. We had four or five meals from that bird, plus our son took the carcass home to make soup.

[02ebz06]

One thing I think is still a bargain is roasted chickens.
$5 and local Costco. Not worth buying uncooked ones at those prices.

[Richard Chrz]

See, I would never buy that. I would rather break down a whole chicken, and use each cut the way I prefer, and build 6 meals off of it. Clarifier, I only feed my wife and I, but if I had children, I would push it even more, and they all would taste better than a grocery store roasted chicken.

[tamidw]

One of my friends goes to Costco and buys 5-10 roasted chickens at once and will bring them home and break them down and portion out and throw in freezer to go into meals or appetizers, etc.

[Richard Chrz]

I have only made it through a few chapters, as my brain has shifted to summer cooking. But, so far it is a pretty decent book.

https://www.amazon.com/Everlasting-Meal-Cooking-Economy-Grace/dp/1439181888/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=241908236322&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9019251&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=15750336162257431916&hvtargid=kwd-335861965190&hydadcr=22592_10348088&keywords=tamar+adler+an+everlasting+meal&qid=1687637045&sr=8-3

[bbqLuv]

Because it cost more

[02ebz06]

Doh, now why didn't I think of that.

[CaptainMike]

Great article and discussion, but as we are witnessing daily it is surely going to get worse, way worse, in so many ways before it gets better. We (collectively) need to change our views on who we chose to represent us in government. These people are no longer public servants and have not been for a very long time. They are also not very bright people whose only talent seems to be the ability to convince enough people to vote for them. Perhaps that genie is already out of the bottle, but we simply can't keep doing the same things and acting the same way over and over and expect different results.

[Prof Bunky]

I agree in principle with a lot of what's being said but not everyone can grow their own food (or wants to); due to this and that, we've just about given up growing vegetables. And not everyone lives in cattle country, though I'm kinda wishing we did. I'm sure the meat is superior to what we can get here.

[tamidw]

I definitely do not have a green thumb. I’ve tried veggies and various things and can never do it. So I have to get from others or store.

[Bogy]

There's advantages and disadvantages to everywhere.

[texastweeter]

Handloads are cheap, wild hogs are plenty, cottage bacon is good.

[texastweeter]

You don't have feral pigs or wild game in Iowa @Jkhnert?

[Bogy]

We have lots of wild game, and lots of hogs, but if you shoot them some farmer is going to get his own gun.

[texastweeter]

Lol. Bogy