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Bad Food Gets Cheaper, Good Food Gets More Expensive

The other day my mother was lamenting the fact that organic avocados are really quite expensive. That’s true, but then again, I’m kinda used to buying organic produce, so I probably don’t even notice. I just don’t look at the prices of non-organic stuff, if there’s an option!

But she’s right, and it was little surprise to stumble across this telling chart today:

Comments

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    This is pretty frightening – I wonder if there are ideas of the reasons for this? I’d love to also see a graph like this that shows nutritional value to cost in various items!

  • Where I read about it, the author attributed it largely to the government subsidizing corn, and to a lesser extent, wheat. Which isn’t surprising. When I walk into a health food store around here, I see entire aisles virtually dedicated to corn products. In a conventional grocery store, it’s even worse.

    It seems like in America we use corn for so many things it blows my mind. We use it as a sweetener. We put it in our gasoline. It’s processed into virtually every meal we eat. We won’t see a movie without it!

  • I have found ways to cut on costs. I grow my own sprouts and this summer I am going to plant a large garden filled with lots of greens. I also go to farms that are not certified organic, but are organic. I talk to them and get a feel for their integrity and usually I trust my instincts. If they are not certified then they don’t charge nearly as much. I forage for wild greens to put in my smoothies and they are free! I usually have a quart of smoothie a day. I look for sales on organic produce and buy lots of it when it goes on sale. Sometimes the organic stuff can be as cheap as the conventional. I will use up what I can and then try to either freeze or dehyrate the rest. Sprouted grains are pretty filling and cheap to buy if you buy in bulk. I live 50 miles east of Seattle and boy do we have a lot of farms here! Sometimes the farms are U Pick which makes them even cheaper. One farmer who came to know me, gave me all his carrot greens for free! I use them in my smoothies too. I have found that I don’t really spend much more than I did before, perhaps because I was a little pig before I went raw, heheh. I do believe that more and more people are eating organic which means prices will get better in time. I feel that they already showing signs. at least here.

  • Several of my raw food book sources allege that as our health declines, so do profits for the health care industry.

  • humanimalhumanimal Raw Newbie

    hahah yeah my grocery bill is up near the $80s and $100s too trinity, so I feel your pain. Time to start the growing stuff and turn that tiny garden I have in my back yard into rain forest :) The prices do totally suck!

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    I think it is because the drug and health industry make a profit when we are sick and obese.

  • Exactly!

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    yes, and if we die young then we don’t get to have our pensions…so that saves the government and businesses money. But I always make myself feel better about the amount I spend on food by remembering I am not buying drinks when I go out, I don’t buy any fast food/junk food extra snacks like I used to, I am not grabbing a couple of bags of crisps and a bar of chocolate when I am in the corner shop, and I’m not spending money going out to eat in restaurants. Everything I eat and drink is made from scratch by me with food I buy at the supermarket. So I think it evens itself out.

  • chriscarltonchriscarlton Raw Newbie

    The movie Eating says that only 10 cents is spent on advertising fruit and veggies for every Million spent on Meat and Dairy.

    Bad foods receive all the governments subsidies as well. If they did not, it is said that beef would now be $90 a pound.

    Never before have we eaten so much animal fats and protein. Animal foods like meat, dairy and fish only became affordable in the 20th century. In the last half of the century we’ve doubled our meat consumption to an average of 105 kilos per person per year.

    We’ve switched from a plant-based diet to an animal based one. This was the biggest diet change in human history and was followed by a huge increase in cancer, heart disease and diabetes. These were previously the diseases of the rich, who could afford to eat a lot of animal foods.

    We now grow far more food to feed farm animals than we eat ourselves. 87% of agricultural land is used to raise the animals we eat. Farm animals consume 80% of our corn, 80% of our grain and 95% of our oats. We spend more time, money and resources fattening the animals we eat than we do feeding humans that are actually starving.

    I Love This Forum. It’s the best on the net!

  • I was discussing this with a friend just a couple of days ago.

    Why is it I can buy a cheeseburger for $.69 when a bunch of spinach at the farmers market costs $1.50?

    The cheeseburger takes bread, meat, cheese, condiments, a store front, advertising, and somebody to make it and someone else to hand it to me. Plus all the transportation costs and packaging for each ingredient.

    The spinach is picked out of the ground and driven 20 minutes and is sold to me by the same person under a tent.

    I don’t get it.

  • JoescJoesc Raw Master

    Dirt I don’t get it either. I contemplate that, every time I go to the grocery store. The best oranges are $1 each on sale. You can get a double cheesburger at burger king for $.99 on sale. That makes no sense. You see advertisements for meat, and fast food all the time. Everything is a buck. I can barely stand to watch television.

  • This is why you just stop watching TV all together. it’s propaganda. I’ve been without television for over a year now, and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

    I’ve noticed that my grocery bill has gone up quite a bit since ive stopped eating meat and crap food, and I am expecting it to go even higher with the rising in gasoline prices. I believe that because so many people eat garbage that the prices can be low because more and more people are buying it. Say if you go to McDonalds and buy a 1.00 mcchicken and like it, you more than most likely will start buying the 3.99 deluxe mcchicken with lettuce on it. It eventually evens out so the business makes a profit. If less people buy fruits and vegetables then the prices have to be higher to make up for the difference, and allow the growers and transporters to make a profit. It really does sicken me to think this is happening.

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    Yeah, I’ve been without TV for 2 years, one of the best things I ever did!

    Here’s Mac Donalds using subliminal advertising on a US Tv show – hmmm I thiught that was illegal?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzbwa6PvEE

  • NO WAY!! That’s crazy!! I can’t believe they can do that!

  • spiritedmamaspiritedmama Raw Newbie

    OMG Zoe, that is so scary and disgusting! I thought that was illegal too. Even though I am raw, I have always enjoyed watching the Food Network (though not Iron Chef….dumb show in my opinion), but I think I will think twice about watching it from now on.

  • ohhhh very interesting! We also haven’t had t.v for the last two years…before we couldn’t afford cable, but now we choose not to have it and i don’t miss it one bit. The way that we justified the extra money needed to start going raw was that we wouldn’t be spending any extra money on meat, so what we save now can go towards veggies and fruits. I also do agree though that prices are sky high especially when it seems like everyone on this site (myself included)are on a tight budget…the good news at least now i don’t feel alone in my woes!

  • kauaigirlkauaigirl Raw Newbie

    Here in Hawaii where EVERYTHING grows, we still pay these crazy prices at the grocery store for fruits/veggies imported from California/Mexico/wherever. I thought for sure everything would be super cheap here… I try to buy from the farmer’s market as much as possible but it is frustrating to stare out my back window at a huge, unreachable avocado tree and then see $3 for an organic avo at the store.

  • Last night I was watching Celebrity Fit Club, hey Da Brat and Tiffany is on it…nuff said…and right between the commercial and the program a blink of a box of relacore came on….I turned to my partner and said, did you see that? And alas it was just me and I was thinking man the relacore people will be mad that they paid money for a spot and only a bit of it came on…now I’m thinking that’s the plan!!

  • I’m pretty sure no law was ever passed against “subliminal advertising,” as it was widely concluded that they were not actually effective. I have noticed, however, that lately some unscrupulous interests have started using them. Television being what it is these days, it’s harder and harder to say when something is “subliminal,” owing to the fast pace of shows and commercials in general.

  • I always would see that short blink of what looks like the end of a commercial (ironic it’s always a shot of the product itself) and would think oh maybe someone messed up at the network and pressed the wrong button or something, and that blip would stay in my mind throughout the whole break. Who knew!!

  • koolieaidedkoolieaided Raw Newbie

    I’m so tired of how you have to pay loads of money to buy food to keep you healthy, but you barely have to pay anything to keep you sick.

    I totally agree with you joesc. There’s a reason why it’s called the FDA and not just the FA. If they can keep us sick they can keep up trying to find the magic pill to get healthy. Medication cost loads…and America’s depression rate is through the roof (so to speak) To bad for them…Raw foodists are smarter than that!

  • It’s simple actually. Bad food is cheaper because it’s bad for you, eventually you will wind up getting sick and in need of expensive medical attention, the more the people need medical attention, the more doctors need to work, the more the doctors work the more the government can tax them, the more they tax the doctors the more the government makes. It’s kinda like potholes in streets. Ever wonder why they don’t get fixed? Because potholes break cars. Broken cars need mechanics. The more mechanics work, the more they are taxed.

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