Is the Rising Cost of Food Forcing Us to Change Our Diets?

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The discussion highlights the significant increase in food prices over recent years, prompting many individuals to alter their eating habits. Participants express frustration over the rising costs of healthy food options, with examples like salad bars and various cuts of meat becoming prohibitively expensive. Fast food often emerges as a cheaper alternative, leading to difficult choices between nutritious meals and inexpensive processed foods. Many contributors share strategies for managing food expenses, such as shopping at local markets, utilizing coupons, and buying in bulk. Some emphasize the importance of growing their own food or sourcing from local farms to mitigate costs. The conversation also touches on the impact of government policies on food prices, particularly the subsidies that favor unhealthy, processed foods over fresh produce. Overall, the thread reflects a growing concern about food affordability, particularly for those on fixed incomes, and the challenges of maintaining a healthy diet amidst rising prices.
  • #61
dlgoff said:
I'm going to clean up the old chicken house and get a couple of hens. Nothing like homegrown eggs. I probably can't beat the cost of store bought eggs, with the feed cost and all, but they're going to be oh so good.

And hopefully this year will be good for the garden. That will save some money.
Good luck with that, dlg. I have thought about building a coop for just that reason. I've already got a good-sized garden. Add in some laying hens and some broilers and there's a lot of fresh protein. If I thought that the chickens would patrol the garden and eat the bugs without wandering out into the road, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Some close friends of mine keep guinea hens, and they are prolific layers. They are also noisy, and are escape-artists extraordinaire.
 
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  • #62
I've had chickens many time over the years. At one time I had a dozen layers and a couple of roosters. Problem is, too many eggs. Two hens is just about right for two people.

I have an area penned off so they can leave their house and roam outside and still be protected from the foxes.

I don't think you would want them in your garden, as they can scratch and do a lot of damage. And you're right about the guineas; I feel like shooting the pair that lives around here sometimes.
 
  • #63
You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what? It is far easier to raise more criticisms about the typical food found in grocery stores than how many criticisms you could level against organic foods. I think there is no dispute that the idea behind organic foods is good, however the concept has been high jacked by huge factory farms and the message of organic production and consumption has now been convoluted. Buyer beware.

Btw organic foods are more than just about eating food that hasn't seen any pesticides, antibiotics, or raised in a environmentally friendly matter. Its also about preserving our diversity of food. Factory farming has nearly wiped out many different breeds of livestock and produce. Different breeds of livestock have very different taste qualities. The typical turkey you buy at the grocery store for thanksgiving tastes like flavorless cardboard after you've tried a heritage turkey. The same can be said with chicken. I don't see what's trendy or gimmicky about preserving the diversity of our food at all. Personally I like he idea of preserving more foods because it gives me a braoder range of flavors to choose from. But hey, if you are content with only being able to only eat 2 or 3 types of tomatoes, 1 type of corn, 1 type of chicken, 1 type of turkey, etc. etc. then that is simply a matter of your tastebuds dull opinion, nothing more. There's nothing trendy about organic food and their often broader, more diverse range of flavor. If an organic farmer never grew those types of produce and livestock they probably would have went extinct a long time ago.
 
  • #64
dlgoff said:
I have an area penned off so they can leave their house and roam outside and still be protected from the foxes.
I have a good friend who had a nice enclosed space for his chickens. It was good enough to keep the chickens in, but not good enough to keep the raccoons out, and he was losing birds at a rapid clip until he figured it out. Obviously, it wasn't foxes or weasels, etc because the birds were missing. The 'coons would break into the place, kill the birds, and lug them off to eat them elsewhere.
 
  • #65
turbo-1 said:
I have a good friend who had a nice enclosed space for his chickens. It was good enough to keep the chickens in, but not good enough to keep the raccoons out, and he was losing birds at a rapid clip until he figured it out. Obviously, it wasn't foxes or weasels, etc because the birds were missing. The 'coons would break into the place, kill the birds, and lug them off to eat them elsewhere.
And it's really hard to keep a big old black snake from getting in and eating the eggs too. I caught one getting eggs once and took him a couple hundred yards down by the woods. Then a couple year ago I found the old boy. Now's he's a good 6 foot long and as big around as my arm. When I caught him this time he had 4 blue jays in him. I took him back to the woods. Kind of like the old boy.
 
  • #66
gravenewworld said:
You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what? It is far easier to raise more criticisms about the typical food found in grocery stores than how many criticisms you could level against organic foods. I think there is no dispute that the idea behind organic foods is good, however the concept has been high jacked by huge factory farms and the message of organic production and consumption has now been convoluted. Buyer beware.

Btw organic foods are more than just about eating food that hasn't seen any pesticides, antibiotics, or raised in a environmentally friendly matter. Its also about preserving our diversity of food. Factory farming has nearly wiped out many different breeds of livestock and produce. Different breeds of livestock have very different taste qualities. The typical turkey you buy at the grocery store for thanksgiving tastes like flavorless cardboard after you've tried a heritage turkey. The same can be said with chicken. I don't see what's trendy or gimmicky about preserving the diversity of our food at all. Personally I like he idea of preserving more foods because it gives me a braoder range of flavors to choose from. But hey, if you are content with only being able to only eat 2 or 3 types of tomatoes, 1 type of corn, 1 type of chicken, 1 type of turkey, etc. etc. then that is simply a matter of your tastebuds dull opinion, nothing more. There's nothing trendy about organic food and their often broader, more diverse range of flavor. If an organic farmer never grew those types of produce and livestock they probably would have went extinct a long time ago.
Some very good points. I garden organically, and I buy organic untreated seeds from a a local source that does their best to support farmers that preserve heirloom varieties of vegetables. Without this diversity, we would fall prey to Monsanto's plan to flood the market with hybrids that fail to breed true or produce viable seed.

I don't save and propagate seed, but there are plenty of organic farmers in this area that do just that. They are being threatened by Monsanto, though, which just got approval to market another variety of BT corn in the state. With inadequate buffer-zones, GM crops can contaminate heirloom crops and render them infertile. Not good.
 
  • #67
gravenewworld said:
You can be a cynic about anything. It's very easy and a cop out. You can go ahead and call organic foods "trendy" and overpriced, but so what?
They are trendy and overpriced and most have no idea what they're doing. Moonbear can tell horror stories about the conditions of the animals at some of these so called "organic" meat farms.

I happened to grow up living close to a small farm oned by an elderly couple down in Texas. They grew vegetables and sold eggs. I think I was 5-6 when Pa Tingle showed me how to candle eggs. He'd take me through the fields and explain to me why he'd grow certain types of crops together and about crop rotation. He had cool weather vegetables growing around the corn in summer.

The people around the corner from us shot anything they saw and we we're invited over for dove and squirrel. My dad's friend always gave us venison every year that he hunted. My first husband hunted rabbit on his friend's ranch. (I love rabbit)

Then I had an aunt and uncle in Tampa, Florida that were commercial farmers. They had citrus orchards and strawberry fields. They added a chicken ranch with about 100,000 chickens.

My current meat connection shoots wild turkey, pheasants and deer. He's meticulous in handling the meat. So, I've been brought up around farms and hunters all of my life and I absolutely will not buy out of the organic section of my local supermarket because I have absolutely no idea how this stuff is raised or processed.
 
  • #68
Sorry for the bad typing btw, Iam doing this via mobile.
 
  • #69
Moonbear said:
The only pack of chicken I've seen for $9 is the giant family-sized pack that would feed me for two weeks (I will buy it, because I can freeze everything I'm not eating fresh in a day or two).

Actually, the only food I've noticed go up noticeably in price in the past year or two are peppers.

I wouldn't be surprised by a short-term spike in produce prices right now, though. With all the cold and snow hitting the southern growing region, and also hindering travel along trucking routes, there may be some short term shortages in supply of produce, or poorer quality with frost damage. But I primarily switch to frozen vegetables for winter anyway.

Two boneless chicken breasts, here, will cost you over $9. $9 won't purchase a family-sized pack of anything chicken. Not even thighs. I don't know why, but chicken is crazy expensive here. When I got to visit friends of my on the west coast, I'm always astonished at how much less chicken costs there. And especially because this is an ag province.

I haven't noticed anything in particular getting more expensive in the past year or two, it just seems to be an overall thing. It costs more and more every time I go to the supermarket and my buying habits haven't changed. And I don't buy whole bunches of pre-packaged processed stuff. (Ever notice that most of that stuff tastes like chemicals?)
 
  • #70
I donno why you guys mention food cost. I blow close to 200 bucks a week on coffee, beer, and soda. :biggrin:

You work hard, you play hard. If you don't have the money, get a job!
 
  • #71
I am at about 120$/week (2 meals and 2-4 coffees a day).
 
  • #72
cronxeh said:
I donno why you guys mention food cost. I blow close to 200 bucks a week on coffee, beer, and soda. :biggrin:

You work hard, you play hard. If you don't have the money, get a job!
The price of food is not just going up for people with a job. It is going up for everybody, like my 84-year-old father. He lives alone, and is finding it tougher and tougher to buy small portions (appropriate for one person) at prices he can afford. My wife and I keep him (and her elderly mother) in mind when we cook batch foods like soups and casseroles, so we can help ease the strain. The government's decision to not grant a cost of living increase to recipients this year to SS recipients was short-sighted.
 
  • #73
turbo-1 said:
The price of food is not just going up for people with a job. It is going up for everybody, like my 84-year-old father. He lives alone, and is finding it tougher and tougher to buy small portions (appropriate for one person) at prices he can afford. My wife and I keep him (and her elderly mother) in mind when we cook batch foods like soups and casseroles, so we can help ease the strain. The government's decision to not grant a cost of living increase to recipients this year to SS recipients was short-sighted.

You know who is really to blame here? People that breed over 2 kids per couple.
 
  • #74
cronxeh said:
You know who is really to blame here? People that breed over 2 kids per couple.
Have you got anything to back up this off-the-wall idea? Couples who have more than 2 kids are jacking up the price of food in the US? That's beyond speculative.
 
  • #75
Evo said:
I can't wait for my sushi shooter. I won several hundred dollars worth of gift cards at work, so I am waiting for my cards to buy it. MIH will finally get her Birthday present for 2005. I told her it would be a surprise, I think 5 years late will be quite a surprise. :blushing:

Does that sushi shooter come with a hip holster?
 
  • #76
Math Is Hard said:
Does that sushi shooter come with a hip holster?
I'm going to test the sushi shooter, it has a 4-5 star rating.

Would you use a sushi shooter? My Amazon.com cards should be here any day. You could make cat chow sushi for Jellyroll.

I am so cheap. :redface:
 
  • #77
turbo-1 said:
Have you got anything to back up this off-the-wall idea? Couples who have more than 2 kids are jacking up the price of food in the US? That's beyond speculative.

More than 2 kids per couple contribute to population growth, which contributes to increased food use, increased water use, increased consumption of other natural resources, which increases price of food by direct means (higher demand for food itself), and indirect means by increasing cost of land for farming and water cost for irrigation. Not to mention all the green house gases that are produced by excess human population on this planet by direct and indirect means, oil consumption which increases transportation costs, which increases food costs, etc.

Think of kids as cattle that neither makes meat nor milk. Plus all the garbage that we have to store somewhere, which occasionally pollutes the water, which, hey you guessed it - increases cost of food.
 
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  • #78
Evo said:
I'm going to test the sushi shooter, it has a 4-5 star rating.

OK longtime fellow PFers, you know the drill. I'll alert the local hospitals. Who's on first watch?
 
  • #79
GeorginaS said:
Two boneless chicken breasts, here, will cost you over $9. $9 won't purchase a family-sized pack of anything chicken. Not even thighs. I don't know why, but chicken is crazy expensive here. When I got to visit friends of my on the west coast, I'm always astonished at how much less chicken costs there. And especially because this is an ag province.

butchers got a union? how much for a whole chicken that you have to cut up?
 
  • #80
DaveC426913 said:
OK longtime fellow PFers, you know the drill. I'll alert the local hospitals. Who's on first watch?

I'll back you up. Evo is about to acquire a sharp object with moving parts. Red alert.
 
  • #81
cronxeh said:
You know who is really to blame here? People that breed over 2 kids per couple.

The fertility rate in the United States has been at or below the 2.1 replacement rate since the early seventies. If it wasn't for immigration our population would soon stabilize. All the families with 3 or more kids do is counter-act the people who have 0 or 1 children. I don't know where future immigrants will come from, since fertility rates are dropping all over the world.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds...rate#met=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&idim=country:USA:MEX"
 
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  • #82
joelupchurch said:
The fertility rate in the United States has been at or below the 2.1 replacement rate since the early seventies. If it wasn't for immigration our population would soon stabilize. All the families with 3 or more kids do is counter-act the people who have 0 or 1 children. I don't know where future immigrants will come from, since fertility rates are dropping all over the world.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds...rate#met=sp_dyn_tfrt_in&idim=country:USA:MEX"
Best news I've heard in a while.
Maybe we'll become endangered and the whales will have to save us.
 
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