food prices
Anita Graf (agraf@agecon.uga.edu)
Wed, 7 Apr 1999 13:56:43 EST5EDT
> On Mon, 5 Apr 1999 16:18:53 EST5EDT, Anita Graf (Staff) wrote:
>
> >(But I agree that non organic food
> >is dirt cheap -- and junk food seems the cheapest of all.) Anita
>
> I'm not convinced that the "organic is expensive and conventional is
> cheap" line of reasoning holds completely.
>
> Consider an absolutely scrumptious organic navel orange at $1.00/lb
> (they're 79 cents locally). Three oranges to the pound --- easily 3.5
> ounces of inside goodies for 33 cents. Tasty, nourishing, pure, and
> natural --- probably helps support an organic family farm in
> California.
>
> Compare that to an orange Popsicle -- 3.5 ounces of colored, flavored,
> water, sweetend with what is probably GMO-corn syrup. Is it food? Whom
> does it support?
>
> So which one is expensive, and why in light of that obvious answer do
> people persist in calling *organic* food elitist ??
>
Hold up!! You're comparing oranges and apples -- or in this case,
oranges and popsicles. You can't compare prices of a raw ingredient
with that of a processed food and make any conclusion about
organic vs non organic food! The original post on this thread
asserted that you could either buy raw ingredients and spend about
$40/week or buy processed food and spend $100/week, and my response
was that I do buy raw ingredients and STILL pay more like $100/week
because I buy organic. I was assuming that $100/week was presented
as an example of "high food costs" and since that's what I pay (for
two people with thrifty ways and normal appetites), I can only
conclude that organic is expensive. At the very least, it is quite a
bit more expensive than non organic. For example, last week when I
went shopping, a HALF gallon of milk cost $3.00 whereas regular milk
was being advertised at $2.00 for ONE gallon (ie, 300% mark-up).
[Can you see that I did not compare milk to ice cream or cheese?]
I'm not begrudging anyone their due (and least of all farmers who
only get a paltry percentage of the retail price anyway), but I would
like to make the point that buying organic requires a strong will as
it DOES make a dent in one's budget -- at least it does in mine.
Anita Graf
313-F Conner Hall
Dept. of Agricultural and Applied Economics
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-7509
(706) 542-1915 phone
(706) 542-0739 fax
agraf@agecon.uga.edu
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