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DEL.ICIO.USHow much would you pay for locally grown food?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The weekend is approaching, which means many of us will get up early on Saturday and head to a nearby farmers’ market for the best selection of vine-ripe tomatoes, yard eggs, perhaps some Silver Queen corn and green beans. (You can find a list of them, along with recipe ideas and information about what’s in season, on Evening Edge.)
The food for sale is good, but it’s not cheap. A dozen eggs go for $4 to $5 at most booths. A pound of tomatoes ranges from $2 for round red hybrids, to as much as $6 for coddled heirloom beauties. I’ve seen ears of corn priced at $1 each, as much as three times what they cost at a grocery store.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the East Atlanta Village Market getting involved with a pilot project to accept food stamps. (You can find the story here.)
The program is designed to boost the community’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and also to help the market, which is struggling. I stopped in last Thursday, just a half-hour before closing, and found booths still packed with produce.
Prices here are lower than at some other intown markets, but they may still be too high for many low-income neighbors. The market manager told me that basics like squash are priced comparably to what they’d cost in grocery stores. Still, I wonder how many residents get past the booth with imported cheeses, or the sandwich bread at more than $5 a loaf, to sort through the produce and find the basics rather than the higher-priced specialty items.
It’s a tough situation. One farmer’s representative mentioned cutting back on sales there because purchases were so low. Yet the market is one of the most easily accessible ways for residents who may not have cars to buy fresh produce, something that’s hard to find in many inner city neighborhoods.
Across Georgia, in rural Early County, rancher Will Harris is also weighing what local food is worth.
I toured his White Oak Pastures ranch and new cattle processing facility earlier this week, with a group of chefs and representatives from groups involved with the new Georgia Green Foodservice Alliance. Harris wants chefs to start serving his beef, creating greater demand for it from consumers who see it on their menus, and also, of course, buying the beef for their restaurants. (You can read an article about the trip later this week in the print AJC, and online as well.)
He wants affirmation that consumers are willing to vote with their pocketbook, to pay more for meat that fits into their interest in reducing carbon footprints, shrinking food miles, treating animals humanely and preserving family farms. He’s hopeful that they will. But he also realizes that gas prices are going up, and discretionary income is shrinking. Those same factors are reducing business at some restaurants, making those chefs look harder at costs and value, rather than simply putting something on the menu because it’s local and they want to support the farmer and his growing methods.
Prices have historically been higher at local farmers’ markets than at grocery stores. Has anything changed this summer to affect what foods you buy directly from farmers? What do you think is a fair price for tomatoes or another favorite vegetable or fruit? Do some markets offer better values for shoppers than others? Which ones?
Is local food inherently worth more than conventionally raised food? Or do you expect it to cost less, since it travels fewer miles to get to your plate?
Permalink | Comments (10) | Post your comment | Categories: Local Food
Comments
By Leslie
July 31, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
For me, the food from the farmer’s market is worth the additional cost. There are many things to consider when comparing between store bought veggies/fruits and those same items grown locally. The first thing I consider is the nutritional content. This is the most important part of food. Studies have been performed that show food grown in a sustainable/organic method have a higher nutrional value than foods grown conventionally. For anyone who has eaten a veggie straight from the garden when it was picked at just the right time also knows that it just tastes so much better. Food we buy in the grocery store is picked a long time before its ripeness due to the long distance it must travel to the store. This means the taste is not as fresh. I also care about the amount of pesticides put on food. I bet most people aren’t aware that conventional farmers spray a large amount of pesticides and other chemicals on their veggies/fruit so that they all look ‘perfect’. The amount of pesticides sprayed on corn is so toxic that the workers who do the spraying can’t spray two days in a row due to how toxic it is. I personally find that concerning. For most of the beef sold in our grocery stores, the beef is implanted with a growth hormone just so the cow can grow 15% faster and the company can make money faster. My last concern, which I know is bad, is the carbon footprint. I do care about the amount of pollution we put in the air but it isn’t the driving factor for me in purchasing local grown food. I care more about the quality of the food, pesticides, and supporting local farmers.
Then of course, we do have the various viral outbreaks. What concerns me especially is that even after we have an outbreak, it takes forever to determine what exactly is affected and where the outbreak started…that alone makes me want to buy food locally.
By DirtyHippy
July 31, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this
Since local food is grown locally, shouldn’t it cost less in the long run when you subtract the cost of shipping/gas? I buy local produce/food at Harry’s and I don’t think the prices are too bad. Sure the packaged stuff is more expensive than the national brands, but the quality and taste is better. You can get good deals on organics when the veg/fruit is in season also.
By sam
July 31, 2008 12:03 PM | Link to this
People who don’t believe local farmers use the same pesticides,weed killers,and chemical fertilizers that large commercial growers use are fooling themselves.There are some totally organic farms,but they are scarce.Bugs like vegetables and unless you are willing to share your crop,be prepared to use pesticides.Growers that grow organically have to have high prices to offset crop loss and that is a price I’m not willing to pay,so I grow my own.No chemocals at all in my garden and I know that to be true.That’s the only way you can be 100% sure.
By ritish
August 1, 2008 12:28 AM | Link to this
It ts right that locally grown food can costs more than that available in the market.But it is more pure, healthy & good in terms of its nutritional value.
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By Sarah Rolph
August 1, 2008 12:07 PM | Link to this
I am happy to pay more for food that clearly seems better. But not for food that somebody just claims is better. (A sign that says organic means little to me except that the food might have worms in it (I don’t buy organic apples any more, after two worm episodes from two different local organic growers). I look at the food and I buy what looks most fresh, ripe, and appealing.)
A lot of it depends on which foods. A fresh carrot is fantastic, but carrots from the grocery store are fine. On the other hand, there is no point in buying a tomato that was harvested green and gassed and shipped—it tastes like nothing. I live in New England where local tomatoes don’t happen until late August. We generally wait until then to eat real tomatoes. I fill in in the winter with canned tomatoes and I also sometimes buy cherry tomatoes from Mexico, Nature Sweet brand, because they taste good. They must be sun-ripened or they wouldn’t taste so good.
The biggest change in my food buying is that we now have a farmer’s market in our little town, so it is very easy to get fresh food now every Saturday. But that’s only in the summer.
I don’t think the mere existence of pesticides, herbicides, or any other chemical at some point in the growing cycle is necessarily bad in every case. What matters is whether there is a toxic substance in the food when it is actually eaten. The biggest determinant of toxicity is dosage. Unless you know how much of exactly which chemical is on your food when you eat it, you really don’t know whether there is any issue or not. This is the sort of information I would like to see made available—sweeping generalizations are never useful, we need to educate ourselves in the specifics of these matters.
Regarding your questions about the different values provided by different markets, I find a huge difference among them. In my area, Market Basket has by far the best prices. Their produce is pretty good, and their meat is great. They offer Select grade beef which tastes just as good as Choice or better (seems to have more flavor) but is almost half the price—I pay about $8 a pound for sirloin steak. I hardly ever shop at Whole Foods because it is so incredibly expensive. At the farmer’s market I am willing to pay double or triple for great produce because something that was just harvested really does taste better. At Whole Foods, it usually doesn’t taste better, so there is no point in my view.
I dispute the assertion that organic food has more nutritional value. If someone has evidence of this, please provide a link. It makes no sense that this would be the case as a general rule—what would the mechanism be?
It is certainly true that some foods lose nutritional value over time, vegetables especially. For this reason, frozen vegetables are actually better for you than old fresh vegetables—much of the nutritional value is preserved.
Finally, this is a bit off topic, but a related point. One of the most important factors in how much nutrition you get from your vegetables is how you cook them. Most of the vitamins in vegetables are water-soluable, so if you cook them in water or steam them, if you don’t use the liquid you are throwing away most of the nutrition. Try roasting vegetables instead—delicious, easy, and you get all the food value. Soups are also very nutritious for this reason, since all the water is retained in the final product.
By FCm
August 3, 2008 4:35 PM | Link to this
This is not about food or on topic. However I had to thank everyone for getting me to try the coupon thing again. I went online and got $5 off at Shoe Carnival…took the kids, it was tax free AND BOGO. Then $5 off and I ended up paying $3.95 for one child’s shoes. Did $10 off at Rack Room, tax free and BOGO….ended up dead even as one child’s shoes were exactly $10 more than the other. I can live with even.
Grabbed another paper today. Will try and knock together a food plan for the week. Y’all made a believer out of me….OH and the reduce meat at Kroger won me to them for that part of my list….Publix seldom has the reduced stuff, AND the meat at Kroger really is better tasting.
By Lucia
August 6, 2008 8:31 PM | Link to this
I’m on the west side, outside 285, in the Land Without a Farmer’s Market. I, do however, have a CSA subscription and have received the most gorgeous organic produce this summer - tomatoes, squash, cukes, zukes, watermelon, cantaloupe, fresh herbs, and blueberries. I pay $92 for a four-week subscription, and it’s probably more than I would pay for the same produce at the store, but I use it all up, it tastes wonderful, and my kids are so excited to play “what’s in the CSA bag?” www.acookandherbooks.blogspot.com
By fer
August 9, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
We recently paid $4/pound for organic, heirloom tomatoes. They are worth every penny. A tomato sandwich made w/ one of them must be eaten over the plate or sink as the juice just drips from it.
By Mo
August 10, 2008 8:30 PM | Link to this
I along with many other people I know have decided to buy locally grown food as much as possible as well as items made in my country, Canada, as much as possible as well.
Local farmers may not be organically growing their food but as the local food demand grows they may realize that there is another way of thinking making it’s way into the consciousness of the world. That way of thinking includes that fact that most of us, if we really had a choice would not want to knowingly eat pesticides. Research that I have read says that the amount of loss to pests has not been changed by the use of pesticides. The precentage of crop loss has remained the same as before pesticides came into use after WWII (left over war chemicals found a new use as pesticides). All pesticides use does is make money for large corporations and sickens and pollutes the earth.
I grow as much of my own produce on my little 32 by 132 foot property as the sun/shade patterns allow. Then I pay for food that my local farmer or vegetable producer grows. Much more of my money now stays in the local economy and over the long run I believe that is better for the earth.
By Ray Johnson
December 27, 2008 9:00 PM | Link to this
I am an avid gardener who had 250 tomato plants in 2008 along with 8,000+ onions and other vegetables. My products are grown without any chemical spraying. I have looked into the Georgia organic program requirements but it is too EXPENSIVE to get certified. My customers at the various farmer markets are getting organically grown products without the additional cost of being certified. As I tell my customers, the only thing that I put on my crops are BST (BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS). Producing a garden is challenging enough without the drought issues. By me being a retired Marine with 28 years of active service, I have to smile when a customer comes to me and tells me that the heirloom tomatoes he/she purchased last week were “SCRUMPTIOUS.” My garden has won the “Best Garden” in Douglas County for the past seven (7) consecutive years. This award was given by the Master Gardeners of Douglas County after their inspection and analysis. May everyone have a great and wonderful day. Take care!!