The Real Cost of Cheap Food

[mawilson 2,133]

Didn't know he was supposed to change every little thing.

Could have voted against it.

Great article, by the way, Steven.

[mawilson 2,133]

I don't push it, but I wonder: Why do people apply that logic to agricultural products, but not to every other product we use in our daily lives? There are either no chemicals, or the minutest trace of chemicals in some of our foods. But other everyday products are full of chemical ingredients. Read the label on your artificial sweetener, antiperspirant, sun lotion, toothpaste, household cleaning products, soda, shampoo, and disposable diapers, for example. The medicines we administer to our children when they are sick are man-made substances.

People do apply the same logic to other products.

I don't use artificial sweeteners, and my toothpaste, antiperspirant, cleaning products and shampoo

don't contain any harmful chemicals.

The best medicines "administered to children" are not man-made. A nice hot cup of tea with honey,

lemon and ginger beats antibiotics.

[jundp 191]

We're part of a locally grown, weekly delivery program. For $20/wk we get a big paper grocery sack full fresh picked organic produce grown about 20 miles from here. We're not part of the program during the summer because we grow so many of our own items.

This is a really great website!

http://www.localharvest.org/

Awesome site! Thanks, Amber!

that IS fabulous. I've already looked up a place just about 2 miles from us that will do weekly mixed produce in $15 or $25.5 boxes. I'm going to keep looking though. I would hate to get a delivery where half of the box was stuff we wouldn't eat and would have to give away. I wonder if there are mixed produce programs where you can choose the products.

From what I understand with organic farming, most produce is seasonal, so it takes a bit of creativity to eat what's in season or can it for later.

I need to learn how to can food. I remember helping my mom with it when I was growing up but I never had to learn how to do it all by myself. Grrr... Time to learn. I have a huge pantry and kitchen now.

I need to try out some of the farmer's markets around here.. I needs to find me some rhubarb.. I think I am going through withdrawal.. plus my hubby has never heard of it or tried it....

my mom always had a rhubarb plant in the backyard...

Rhubarb is awesome. I never really ate it before I moved to Germany, but I tried some strawberry jam with some rhubarb chunks and that was the end of it. I went to the store and bought some and started experimenting more and more with it. It is great stuff, especially to make sauces with.

My daddy made the best strawberry rhubarb pie.....I miss my daddy. And that pie.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

We're part of a locally grown, weekly delivery program. For $20/wk we get a big paper grocery sack full fresh picked organic produce grown about 20 miles from here. We're not part of the program during the summer because we grow so many of our own items.

This is a really great website!

http://www.localharvest.org/

Awesome site! Thanks, Amber!

that IS fabulous. I've already looked up a place just about 2 miles from us that will do weekly mixed produce in $15 or $25.5 boxes. I'm going to keep looking though. I would hate to get a delivery where half of the box was stuff we wouldn't eat and would have to give away. I wonder if there are mixed produce programs where you can choose the products.

From what I understand with organic farming, most produce is seasonal, so it takes a bit of creativity to eat what's in season or can it for later.

I need to learn how to can food. I remember helping my mom with it when I was growing up but I never had to learn how to do it all by myself. Grrr... Time to learn. I have a huge pantry and kitchen now.

I need to try out some of the farmer's markets around here.. I needs to find me some rhubarb.. I think I am going through withdrawal.. plus my hubby has never heard of it or tried it....

my mom always had a rhubarb plant in the backyard...

Rhubarb is awesome. I never really ate it before I moved to Germany, but I tried some strawberry jam with some rhubarb chunks and that was the end of it. I went to the store and bought some and started experimenting more and more with it. It is great stuff, especially to make sauces with.

My daddy made the best strawberry rhubarb pie.....I miss my daddy. And that pie.

...for your Dad.

As for canning....I remember watching my Mom can strawberry preserves and plum jam....all of it homegrown. Seemed like quite an undertaking...had to buy the jars and wax seals. She even tried churning our own butter one time using an old churn and milk from one our neighbor's cows.

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

Excellent link Amber!

I have to say that I agree with certain elements of both of the long articles quoted. There are compelling arguments for not destroying more land for food production, since we are promoting the idea of the land being less productive. BUT imodern farming methods, the ones that get more out of the cows, are not 'conventional' and are not really that old. Before WW2 the practices that are now known as 'organic' were pretty much standard practice. Sure cows should maybe sometimes be given some antibiotics, but they should not just be given as a matter of course, allowing the bugs to become resistant much more quickly. I also think that antibiotics are handed out far to readily to humans. We should have them when we need them, but since people are given with the slightest sniff, the bugs become resistant, and then they are no good to us anymore.

The other thing is that producing more food in the world is not necessarily a good thing. In Ireland the arrival of the potato allowed the population to explode. It provided much more carbohydrate per acre of land than was possible previously, and therefore people came to depend on it. There were other foods, but they were all exported by the owners of the land (the English). The population went from just over 2 million in 1700 to nearly 9 million at it's height in 1845. When the crop failed more than 2 million people died, and more than 2 million peple fled the country. Simply producing more food is not always a good thing.

[Reba 2]

As for canning....I remember watching my Mom can strawberry preserves and plum jam....all of it homegrown. Seemed like quite an undertaking...had to buy the jars and wax seals. She even tried churning our own butter one time using an old churn and milk from one our neighbor's cows.

My hubby just canned a few dozen jars of cherry jam last weekend, and bagged and froze a half dozen more. We'll be having lots of cherry pies this year

We'll also have quite a lot of grapes this year for jelly, plus our veggie garden and a pear tree. He does all the canning though. I already have a day job

[one...two...tree 2,762]

As for canning....I remember watching my Mom can strawberry preserves and plum jam....all of it homegrown. Seemed like quite an undertaking...had to buy the jars and wax seals. She even tried churning our own butter one time using an old churn and milk from one our neighbor's cows.

My hubby just canned a few dozen jars of cherry jam last weekend, and bagged and froze a half dozen more. We'll be having lots of cherry pies this year

We'll also have quite a lot of grapes this year for jelly, plus our veggie garden and a pear tree. He does all the canning though. I already have a day job

That's awesome, Reba! Do you guys give some to neighbors and friends? I remember we had more than we knew what to do with.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Excellent link Amber!

I have to say that I agree with certain elements of both of the long articles quoted. There are compelling arguments for not destroying more land for food production, since we are promoting the idea of the land being less productive. BUT imodern farming methods, the ones that get more out of the cows, are not 'conventional' and are not really that old. Before WW2 the practices that are now known as 'organic' were pretty much standard practice. Sure cows should maybe sometimes be given some antibiotics, but they should not just be given as a matter of course, allowing the bugs to become resistant much more quickly. I also think that antibiotics are handed out far to readily to humans. We should have them when we need them, but since people are given with the slightest sniff, the bugs become resistant, and then they are no good to us anymore.

The other thing is that producing more food in the world is not necessarily a good thing. In Ireland the arrival of the potato allowed the population to explode. It provided much more carbohydrate per acre of land than was possible previously, and therefore people came to depend on it. There were other foods, but they were all exported by the owners of the land (the English). The population went from just over 2 million in 1700 to nearly 9 million at it's height in 1845. When the crop failed more than 2 million people died, and more than 2 million peple fled the country. Simply producing more food is not always a good thing.

When livestock is kept in close quarters, they tend to be sickly and the sickness quickly spreads from one animal to the next, making it necessary to put antibiotics into their feed. But farming didn't use to operate that way. Cows are much healthier if they are able to roam free, but they also won't produce as much milk. I think we are beginning to realize that bigger isn't better and the model of profitability as priority is flawed. The wisdom of generational farmers was sustainability. You can't rob your soil of essential nutrients without resorting to artificial means to keep growing new crops. Crop rotation is critical to fertile soil.

[HAL 9000 96]

Excellent link Amber!

I have to say that I agree with certain elements of both of the long articles quoted. There are compelling arguments for not destroying more land for food production, since we are promoting the idea of the land being less productive. BUT imodern farming methods, the ones that get more out of the cows, are not 'conventional' and are not really that old. Before WW2 the practices that are now known as 'organic' were pretty much standard practice. Sure cows should maybe sometimes be given some antibiotics, but they should not just be given as a matter of course, allowing the bugs to become resistant much more quickly. I also think that antibiotics are handed out far to readily to humans. We should have them when we need them, but since people are given with the slightest sniff, the bugs become resistant, and then they are no good to us anymore.

The other thing is that producing more food in the world is not necessarily a good thing. In Ireland the arrival of the potato allowed the population to explode. It provided much more carbohydrate per acre of land than was possible previously, and therefore people came to depend on it. There were other foods, but they were all exported by the owners of the land (the English). The population went from just over 2 million in 1700 to nearly 9 million at it's height in 1845. When the crop failed more than 2 million people died, and more than 2 million peple fled the country. Simply producing more food is not always a good thing.

When livestock is kept in close quarters, they tend to be sickly and the sickness quickly spreads from one animal to the next, making it necessary to put antibiotics into their feed. But farming didn't use to operate that way. Cows are much healthier if they are able to roam free, but they also won't produce as much milk. I think we are beginning to realize that bigger isn't better and the model of profitability as priority is flawed. The wisdom of generational farmers was sustainability. You can't rob your soil of essential nutrients without resorting to artificial means to keep growing new crops. Crop rotation is critical to fertile soil.

Now that is too much common sense.

[VisaJourneyLady 33]

I couldn't agree more Jabberwocky. I'm not at all against the idea of 'organic' but I don't really have much faith that what I would think of as organic processes are being monitored adequately in food that claims itself to be organic. I prioritise local and sustainable over organic.

When livestock is kept in close quarters, they tend to be sickly and the sickness quickly spreads from one animal to the next, making it necessary to put antibiotics into their feed. But farming didn't use to operate that way. Cows are much healthier if they are able to roam free, but they also won't produce as much milk. I think we are beginning to realize that bigger isn't better and the model of profitability as priority is flawed. The wisdom of generational farmers was sustainability. You can't rob your soil of essential nutrients without resorting to artificial means to keep growing new crops. Crop rotation is critical to fertile soil.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I couldn't agree more Jabberwocky. I'm not at all against the idea of 'organic' but I don't really have much faith that what I would think of as organic processes are being monitored adequately in food that claims itself to be organic. I prioritise local and sustainable over organic.

When livestock is kept in close quarters, they tend to be sickly and the sickness quickly spreads from one animal to the next, making it necessary to put antibiotics into their feed. But farming didn't use to operate that way. Cows are much healthier if they are able to roam free, but they also won't produce as much milk. I think we are beginning to realize that bigger isn't better and the model of profitability as priority is flawed. The wisdom of generational farmers was sustainability. You can't rob your soil of essential nutrients without resorting to artificial means to keep growing new crops. Crop rotation is critical to fertile soil.

I am in total agreement with that.

[HAL 9000 96]

I couldn't agree more Jabberwocky. I'm not at all against the idea of 'organic' but I don't really have much faith that what I would think of as organic processes are being monitored adequately in food that claims itself to be organic. I prioritise local and sustainable over organic.

When livestock is kept in close quarters, they tend to be sickly and the sickness quickly spreads from one animal to the next, making it necessary to put antibiotics into their feed. But farming didn't use to operate that way. Cows are much healthier if they are able to roam free, but they also won't produce as much milk. I think we are beginning to realize that bigger isn't better and the model of profitability as priority is flawed. The wisdom of generational farmers was sustainability. You can't rob your soil of essential nutrients without resorting to artificial means to keep growing new crops. Crop rotation is critical to fertile soil.

I am in total agreement with that.

Its a logical series of steps...

If you go local and sustainable, you don't need to pack in GMOs and artificial means of mass-producing. Hence, organic stops being a yuppie thing and returns to being the normal, healthy substance everyone should consume.

[Amby 490]

In the summer we grow a lot of our own stuff in a massive garden at our house and another massive garden on our land about an hour from here. We make jellies, jams, and can items. We also freeze items as well. I would love to have some chickens so I can eat fresh eggs, but I'm not into the idea of actually having chickens

[~krakatoa~ 27]

We're part of a locally grown, weekly delivery program. For $20/wk we get a big paper grocery sack full fresh picked organic produce grown about 20 miles from here. We're not part of the program during the summer because we grow so many of our own items.

This is a really great website!

http://www.localharvest.org/

Awesome! Thanks for posting the website.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

In the summer we grow a lot of our own stuff in a massive garden at our house and another massive garden on our land about an hour from here. We make jellies, jams, and can items. We also freeze items as well. I would love to have some chickens so I can eat fresh eggs, but I'm not into the idea of actually having chickens

That's really awesome, Amber! That's how I grew up....my father had a huge garden, we raised chickens, goats, a few steer, some ducks, and one sheep. We also had grapefruit, plum, and an apricot tree. This was in the hot desert of the Arizona - we relied on irrigation to do it.

I hope to someday have a garden of my own. For now we could probably grow a few things on our balcony.