Organic carrots, or a new iPhone?

What people cling to when the going gets tough

Posted by Tom Philpott at 3:25 PM on 05 Jul 2008

Read more about: food | agriculture | industrial ag | economy

Things are getting rough here in the land of cheap food. Corn and soy -- building blocks of the industrial-food system -- are trading at or near all-time highs. And that's rippling through the food chain, from feedlots and food factories to the supermarket shelf.

Here's the latest:

[B]y next year, the price of a pound of chicken breast would climb to $2.63; beef round roast to $4.22, both up 10 percent. And the price of a pound of pork chop could be up to $4.78 -- a 30 percent increase.

Some folks see opportunity for reform in this situation: As prices for industrially produced food rise, the playing field will level for more sustainably produced food. But then there's another possibility: people will "trade down," economize, look for the cheapest food possible, regardless of quality or sustainability concerns.

On that note, from the consumer-trend spotter Euromonitor:

Troubled by a cloud of uncertainty, consumers in 2008 are filled with a sense of anxiety and gloom. To combat this, consumers are focusing on ways to stay financially stable during times of economic instability.... "With food, drinks and personal care products, the chances are that people will trade down particularly in areas that are less important to them."

Meanwhile, though ...

"Technology has been one of the areas where consumers have always been prepared to spend money. But with the economic slow down, growth may be limited to products that offer real benefits. Consumers will likely cut back in other areas in order to protect their spending on the next iPhone, computer or digital media player.

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For story: Organic carrots, or a new iPhone?
6 Comments | Post a Comment

I'm cutting costs

by leaving my truck parked and gathering moss. Switching to bike/bus full time allows me to keep on buying organic and local.

by rycarson at 6:35 PM on 05 Jul 2008

Where in the world...

is chicken only $2.63 a pound? Or less (since it will climb to $2.63)?? Granted I generally buy my chicken from the farmer's market, but when I do pick up organic chicken breasts from Trader Joe's, it's $6.99/lb. I can't imagine that conventional chicken is THAT much cheaper.....

by kmp at 8:46 PM on 05 Jul 2008

Whole Foods or whole foods?

I still shop at a regular supermarket (I am after all, very poor and there isn't much in the way of farmers' markets around here until later in the season), but my indulgences are fresh fruits & veg, not electronics. Though I have racheted down spending on meat. I'm always amazed to see people walking around the grocery store with their carts full of processed foods, whereas the only processed food in my cart is generally bread and the ocassional box of cereal or plain pasta (sometimes I splurge on ice cream or frozen pierogies).

Maybe if people learned to cook (even at the basic level that I'm at: baking and pan-frying meats & veg, steaming & blanching, liberal seasonings, few sauces) using fresh ingredients and took a little more time doing it, we wouldn't have so much value-added "food-like products" to spend oodles of money on.

Then maybe we could eat better and more healthily and STILL have some extra pocket change to save up for that iPod, or to splurge on guilty pop chart pleasures on iTunes.

by SnoDragon at 10:50 AM on 06 Jul 2008

Price differentials

"Some folks see opportunity for reform in this situation: As prices for industrially produced food rise, the playing field will level for more sustainably produced food."

Won't the factors driving price increases in industrially produced foods also impact food produced in more sustainable ways? Even if their input prices do not rise significantly, people might be expected to bid up the value of their products.

a sibilant intake of breath

by sindark at 10:01 AM on 07 Jul 2008

home grown chicken

Hi All,
This year we're raising our own chicken.
This is not the cheap choice, because of all
the things we needed to buy and build to make
it possible. But we did that last year, and
we are still eating the chickens we killed
last fall. This year the feed has gone up,
it's about 35 cents a pound. Chicks are
about $3 each, and so the final product is
going to cost us about $2/lb live weight
and maybe $3/lb after cleaning. That's
closer to Trader Joe's prices than the super
market, but it's nice to know my chicken got
plenty of room to run around, socialize and
hunt insects. There isn't very much pollution
associated with raising your own chickens
either, they taste great, and we have lots
of good fresh eggs to eat too. We had to
design an insulated brood box because our
electrical system couldn't power a 250W bulb
24/7. We're off the grid, and totally solar
powered. A heat lamp on a thermostat did the
trick for keeping the chicks warm.
Cheers,
Susanna Gross

by sjg at 11:30 AM on 07 Jul 2008

I commend Susanna

Raising your own chickens is one of the "big" steps that most people aren't willing to make. Convenience, convenience, convenience. I assume you've got yourself some books? Chickens are probably the easiest things to raise...in the summer they eat a lot of insects around your garden and clip the grass. They'll also eat any food scraps so if there's a restaurant or grocery store that you travel by daily, you might want to inquire about the availability to overripe/spoiled food (unless they're already sending it to a commercial pig farmer or the like). Also, make sure that your coop doesn't have the smallest hole and that it's shut up tight at night...a single weasel will kill every one of your prize chickens in a matter of an hour and they can squeeze in through a whole the size of a quarter.

To everybody else, unless you're willing to humanely raise your own animals and then take the knife in your own hand, I recommend you try to eat low on the food chain if you absolutely must shop at grocery stores. Also, if you go to a grocery store and it's all nice cars/white people in the parking lot, you're paying too much for your food. A grocery store doesn't need the "atmosphere" of a night club...yet if I go into a SafeWay, a Giant, or a Harris Teeter, I immediately ask myself how expensive it must be to have everything so neat and clean and pretty.

The absolute best grocery stores with the best prices are the ones you see Central Americans, Koreans, Chinese, and Indians walking out of with old beat up little cars in the parking lot. They've got the best produce, the best grains, and brown rice comes in economical 20# bags, not the 1lb bags like Harris Tweeter. Sure, it stinks like a third world fish market, but that's what real life smells like anyways, not a sterile, synthetic, flower-like smell. Oh, and by the way, if you trade in your car and buy the car that those people have been driving, you'll save a lot on gas too.

Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

by John former Marine at 4:53 AM on 08 Jul 2008

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