Home > Smart Eating > Archives > 2008 > July
July 2008
How 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
Honey, they shrunk the ice cream carton. Again.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Photo: Elissa Eubanks/AJC Staff
Smaller ice cream cartons will mean fewer scoops to stack.
I picked up some Breyers vanilla ice cream this week to go with a homemade blackberry and peach cobbler.
I got less than I counted on. The company has shrunk its packaging to 1.5 quarts. A few years ago, you could still buy a half-gallon of Breyers and most other brands. Blue Bell is about the only company out there still offering a half-gallon. Most ice cream makers shrunk to 1.75 quarts several years ago, and now there’s a new, even smaller standard.
If you’re a Mayfield fan, you’ve probably noticed that its Classics line, in the traditional “brick” half-gallon package, just dropped to 1.75 quarts. The company’s web site hints that changes lie ahead for the Selects line of two-piece boxes, which went to 1.75 quarts a few years ago. Edy’s Grand cartons are smaller, too.
Of course, it’s not just ice cream cartons that are downsizing. Cereal boxes are svelte. Coffee was once a pound, then 12 ounces, and now down to 10 ounces for some brands. From Tropicana Orange Juice, down from 96 ounces to 89, to Publix store brand yogurt, down from 8 ounces to 6, there’s a whole lotta shrinking going on.
One of my co-workers is especially aggravated that his favorite yogurt, the Publix store brand, just slipped from 8 ounces to 6. He’s a big guy, and he wants the bigger size. He doesn’t want to buy two of the smaller cartons of yogurt and leave one half-eaten, just to get what he used to be able to buy in a single package.
Manufacturers often will reduce package sizes in times of rising food costs rather than raise the cost to shoppers. But is that what most of us want? Especially if we’re using a recipe that calls for a half-gallon of ice cream or a 15.5-ounce can of beans? And what’s next, a gallon of milk that’s a cup or two short? What packages have you noticed shrinking lately?
Permalink | Comments (41) | Post your comment | Categories: Groceries
Will McDonald’s replace Starbucks as the coffeehouse king?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fast food restaurants have been trying to upgrade their coffee in recent years, with mixed success. Some restaurants definitely offer a better cup; some don’t seem that much different than the inexpensive, stale brew they’ve always served. Almost all of the chains have focused on breakfast service.
Not McDonald’s. The hamburger giant is slowly adding McCafe units to most of its restaurants, adding espresso-based drinks to a menu better known for Big Macs and Happy Meals. A couple of years ago McDonald’s revamped its standard coffee, renaming it Premium Roast Coffee and pledging to throw out brewed coffee after 30 minutes. Last year it rolled out iced coffee.
Now the next step, the McCafes, are showing up in Atlanta. About 10 stores have them so far, offering coffeehouse-style treats like iced mochas and caramel lattes, as well as hot standards like cappucinos and lattes. Prices are a little lower than you’d pay for a similar drink at Starbucks, and the names are more user friendly — small, medium and large, not tall, grande and venti. (Starbucks, by the way, is preparing to close 600 stores nationally, including a handful in metro Atlanta. You can read more about the local closings in this AJC article.)
I tried an Iced Mocha today at a company-owned store on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, just west of I-85 and across the street from Gwinnett Place Mall. Topped with whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate, with enough caffeine to banish any afternoon blahs, it’s worth checking out if you’re a fan of these types of drinks. A store across from Perimeter Mall also offers the McCafe drinks, and so do a few other restaurants around metro Atlanta. By the end of the year, most area McDonald’s should offer them, Ken White of McDonald’s told me this afternoon.
It’s an interesting change from the first McCafe I visited, a prototype in a Chicago restaurant several years ago. There, the coffee came in large mugs and drinkers lounged at quiet booths on the second floor of the restaurant. The Duluth store has one quiet nook, but otherwise it’s a bustling place, with the parking lot full even after the lunch hour peak, and the coffee served in disposable cups.
By adding the McCafes, McDonald’s hopes to convince its regular customers to increase their visits, or to bump up their check total by adding an espresso-based drink. The chain also reaching out to others who might be skeptical about Mickey D’s turning into a coffeehouse, complete with a more upcale feel that may include Wi-Fi, stacked-stone columns, brushed stainless steel and lots of blond wood. Kind of like, well …
Have you tried any of the McCafe espresso-based drinks? If you haven’t, would you go to McDonald’s for this type of drink, or stick to your favorite coffeehouse?
Permalink | Comments (32) | Post your comment | Categories: Dining out
What would you never do to save money on food?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I went shopping on Monday with Stephanie Nelson, who runs the Coupon Mom web site. It organizes grocery and drug store sale prices, matching them with available coupons and telling you the best possible price on hundreds of items at Kroger, Publix, Wal-Mart, CVS, Target and other stores. You have to register to use it, but she promises she won’t sell your email address. You can print coupons at the web site, too, and sign up for offers from her advertisers.
For bargain lovers, shopping with Stephanie is a sight to behold.
She spends an hour preparing for her weekly shopping trips, a job that includes cleaning out the refrigerator, taking inventory, seeing what’s on sale that week, planning a week’s worth of menus, then drawing up the grocery list.
She plans meals for her family of four based on sales, coupons and, of course, what they’ll eat. We hit a Kroger in Roswell in the morning, as workers were marking down meat and produce for quick sale. (By the way, you can read more about Stephanie’s money-saving tips in an upcoming article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It should be available online, too, by Saturday, July 26.)
Stephanie shops with a clipboard holding her shopping list, one printed from her web site that lists available coupons and their value, other deals on the product, and the final price. She figures she spends no more than $125 a week on groceries — that doesn’t include one restaurant meal a week, but does include the lunches that both she and her husband eat at home each day, and what her sons, who are 12 and 15, put away when they’re eating all meals at home in the summer. Personal care items like shampoo are in that total, too. In May, she really focused on spending to see how much she could cut and still eat healthfully, and got the total down to $82 a week.
Monday’s total: $69.61 before the coupons came out, with significant savings from buying marked-down meat and produce. After the coupons: $28.83. Among her purchases were not only food for her family, but cat food she picked up for free using coupons, that she’ll donate to a charity that provides food for people and pets.
Stephanie uses a store loyalty card, is willing to switch brands or try private label (store brand) products if the price is right. She buys meat and produce marked down for quick sale, because its sell-by date is the day she shops, or perhaps the next day. She picks produce based on what’s the better buy: Peaches this time of year instead of apples, for example. She limits her trips to stores close to home, and sticks with a couple of them, shopping one for better prices on milk and eggs, another for many of her staples. If there are coupons for something she thinks her sons would like that get the price so low it’s irresistible — this week it was raspberry tea, free with coupon — she picks it up.
They’re all good ways to save money, but many shoppers don’t take all those steps. Some don’t like store loyalty cards or online savings sites, because they don’t want to give up personal information or have their shopping habits put into a corporate database. Some want their favorite produce, regardless of whether it’s in season and inexpensive. Some go to four or more stores to get the prices; some just stick with one place, figuring they’ll save on gas.
What kind of things that would save you money on food are you willing to do? What are cost-cutting steps that you simply won’t take, and why?
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Groceries
How much sugar is too much?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every evening, after dinner, my children have just one question: Dessert?
Usually, the answer is no. It doesn’t seem to matter how often we tell them that dessert is a special treat and not an everyday happening.
They keep hoping. And after a week of vacation that included making homemade peach and chocolate ice cream, who can blame them?
We’ve set the ice cream aside for now and gone back to the usual routine of eating dessert every once in a while, and offering second helpings of vegetables or bread if they’re still hungry.
But they’re still getting plenty of sugar from other places, like the bug juice served with their camp lunches this week, the popsicles handed out on Fridays, and, at other camps, the cookies and other sweets distributed as snacks.
And it’s not just children who are loading up on the sweet stuff — and not just desserts that are loaded with sugar. A new study from Emory University finds that Americans are getting more than 10 percent of their daily calories from fructose, used in sweetened beverages and processed foods. Besides the most common sources of added sugars — soft drinks, candy, pastries and fruit drinks — it’s in a range of unexpected foods, from spaghetti sauces to whole wheat bread.
If you’re reading labels, you’ll see it listed as sucrose — another name for table sugar — and high-fructose corn syrup. Fructose consumption is up almost 50 percent, according to the study, which measured what American children and adults ate from 1988-1994, compared to the late ‘70s.
Study author Miriam Vos, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, says there is growing evidence that eating too much fructose can affect health. The most recent government nutritional advice recommends significantly reducing the amount of foods and beverages with added sugars we consume. That’s because they can squeeze out more nutritious food from our diet, while piling on calories.
Do you look at labels for added sugars? How are you trying to reduce sugar in your family’s diet?
Permalink | Comments (8) | Post your comment | Categories: Healthy eating
How has the salmonella outbreak affected you?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(updated 07/10)
If you love fresh fruit and vegetables, there’s no better time than summer. But this year, news of a widespread salmonella outbreak has kept many people from eating tomatoes, which federal disease detectives initially blamed for the infections.
Now, the cause is up in the air. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are looking at other foods that could be to blame, from jalapeno and serrano peppers to cilantro, all ingredients commonly found in fresh salsa, guacamole and pico de gallo. The CDC is warning those at increased risk of food-borne illness to avoid jalapenos and serranos, based on findings that some of those sickened with salmonella ate jalapenos but not tomatoes. Healthy people who want to avoid illness may want to steer clear, too, they said.
But they’re still warning against eating raw round red tomatoes, Roma or plum tomatoes from growing regions that haven’t been cleared in the investigation. By now, the FDA has cleared almost every region in production, including Georgia — but the outbreak is continuing, with 1,017cases as of the most recent CDC update, on July 9.
How about a burger instead? Earlier this month, Nebraska Beef, Ltd., recalled 5.3 million pounds of beef that could be contaminated with E. coli 0157:H7, after dozens of people in Ohio and Michigan were sickened with the bacteria. Some of that beef went to Kroger supermarkets. (Here’s the complete Kroger recall notice, which includes meat sold in Georgia supermarkets in the self-serve case, labeled as Private Selection Natural ground beef packages with sell-by dates of July 11 to July 21.)
And health authorities in Southwest Georgia are checking into a cluster of E. coli 0157:H7 infections in Moultrie that may be related to the ground beef recall. So far, one case showed the same strain found in patients in Ohio and Michigan; the CDC continues to investigate to see if they are linked. Meanwhile, the state health department has linked eight Georgia cases to the Barbecue Pit restaurant in Moultrie and is looking into four others that may be related.
There is much information online about protecting yourself from food-borne illness, including common-sense advice to keep hot foods hot, cold foods cold, to cook meat thoroughly and to avoid contaminating kitchen counters, plates and other foods with raw meats, eggs and seafood. Hand-washing is important, too. (You can find more information on precautions from the Partnership for Food Safety Education and from a federal food safety web site that lumps together resources from various agencies, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors agricultural pesticide use.)
That’s helpful information if you’re at higher risk of food borne illness. People who suffer from a chronic health condition or illness, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS or diabetes, as well as those who are pregnant, elderly or young children, are at greater risk because their immune systems don’t work as well as those in healthy adults.
But it’s no guarantee you won’t get sick from food-borne illness at some point. The CDC estimates there are 76 million cases each year in the United States. That’s about a 1-in-4 chance. Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health advocacy group, issued a report earlier this year warning of major gaps in the country’s food safety systems.
What do you think of the advice you’re getting from the government on keeping yourself and your family safe from food-borne illness outbreaks? Have you changed what you’re buying in stores or farmers’ markets, or ordering in restaurants, based on recalls or government advisories? How about how you handle food at home? And — do you dare to dip a chip?
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Food Safety
Services »
