Cheap food is anything but cheap

EVERYONE can eat well.  There is more than enough money in the food system for everyone to enjoy safe,
nutrient dense food generally from local sources. Let’s be clear about that.  At the Verba Farm at Williams Point a family can eat quality food for less than when the same family buys at the local grocery store. When you look at the price per pound of candy, potato chips, or cereal you will find that they are NOT cheap. And if you factor in nutrition, they are definitely not cheap. If you took the money currently spent on Coca-Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and McDonald's and spent it instead on local
nutrient-dense direct-from-the-farm food, the
system contains plenty of money to eat well.

Your don’t need to be a gourmet chef to eat well. Most of the problem is a lack of domestic culinary skills. This can be from ignorance, negligence, or laziness, none of which has anything to do with money. Plenty of busy people cook unprocessed food. Locally, if you go into the Wegman’s Market you will find Premium Idaho baking potatoes occupy a tiny box in the produce section and sell for 10 cents a pound. Two aisles over, microwavable frozen
premade French fries occupy 150 feet of freezer space, and sell for $1.25 per pound. A couple more aisles over, potato chips in bags occupy another 150 feet of shelf space and sell for $4 a pound.

You can make do on a lot less if you look, just like scrounging for anything. If you ask for seconds on tomatoes, or can the mountain of tomatoes local farmers are throwing away just before frost when the
plants explode with end-of-season premonitional bounty, you can get premium local vegetables by the bushel for very little money. Eating well does not require you to eat organic tomatoes shipped air freight from Peru in January. You can eat better
by canning, drying, or freezing local seasonal bounty
and enjoying it in the off season. But that means getting busy, refusing to be a victim, and being responsible.

Chuck and I have put locally grown, pesticide free and in season produce at the hands of all people for the past 3 years.  The trend is doing nothing but grow.  It amazes me when people will walk up to me and tell me that our food is expensive.  It is anything but expensive.  I would venture to say that you could buy enough food for a full meal for 4 or so for the same price you might pay for just one meal at any fast food chain.  The calories are healthier, the food is better and the price is more economical.  It is a win-win-win situation. 

What we have the toughest time doing is educate folks to understand what we are selling and what we are doing.  The quality of the food is not even in the same sphere as buying processed food.  I guess there is an argument that beef and hot dogs both come from a cow, but the difference is night and day.  Buying a potato to bake and buying some processed ‘tater meal both may be near or have seen a potato at one time, but they are not the same thing.

We sell wholesome fresh (often picked and sold the same day) produce.  How does that get any fresher.  If we don’t grow it ourselves we buy it from farmers we know.  The ones we have relationships with have the same philosophy we do.  They use no chemicals or pesticides to grow their crops.  They are local.

2010 is the season to realize you can eat better and save money at the same time.