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| Nothing better than fresh picked raspberries! |
I recently read a blog post from Bethany over at Rinse Repeat, and it got me thinking. Her question was this “How do you incorporate cleaner, safer food without busting the bank?” It’s a really good question. Do we know where our food is coming from? Do we care? Does organic really matter or mean anything?
My family has been struggling with this for the better part of 5 years. Where do you draw the line? Organic generally costs a LOT more. How do I justify the increased expenditure? My grocery bill is already way more than what I consider to be within reason. According to the USDA at home food prices rose an average of 2.8% yearly. However it also notes that while processed goods stay relatively stagnant in price (due to high labor to food cost ratio) raw goods are rising at an astronomical rate. Beef was more than 8% more expensive year over year. We are being punished for eating whole foods, cooking at home, and trying to be at least relatively healthy. On top of that when we try to be responsible, sustainable, or healthy it gets even worse. Organic labels are often times questionable, and priced well above the non organic counterpart.
So how do we do it? I could cut out meat; it is generally very expensive to buy organic, grass fed meat. But my husband might boycott at home dinners. I could only eat organic and cut back on other things in our life, but I don’t subscribe to the notion that organic is always healthier. The big question I always come back to is where does it come from?
