In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night.
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Dear Lou,
With the economic crunch, how is it going to be possible to afford healthy foods for my family, especially organics? It’s not like I can go foraging in the medians of the major roadways.
Karl from Southern California
Dear Karl,
I’m not going to lie to you: Sticking to your budget while eating organically is going to take some work. But I can already tell that you are up for the task. You not only have the good sense to want high-quality food for your family, but you also know enough to stay out of the rubble and shell casings of Southern California’s freeway medians.
I have a good feeling about you, Karl. Together, we can circumnavigate the perverse food system that is making many good Americans fall prey to the so-called recession diet, which amounts to buying off-brand marshmallow cereal. (Sigh.)
So, let’s roll up our sleeves (not that you need them where you live) and get to work.
• Have a plan before you get to the store. If you don’t have a household budget, start one now. If you need help, track your finances on Wesabe where you’ll also get tips and support from its virtual community.
Once you know how much discretionary income you have, make “food” a budget item to defend. “There are a lot of other things you can look at to get rid of before you are cutting your food budget,” says Jen Rogers, a family finance expert, news anchor for Reuters, and (following the president’s lead, I’m all for transparency here) my sister-in-law.
“The absolute last thing that you are going to cut is food. You are going to cut all of your discretionary spending first,” she says. “You are going to cut your cable bill, you are going to cut your magazines, before you actually cut what you eat.”
Okay! Now that you’ve killed TiVo, it’s time to:
• Perform organic triage. Do the pesticides bother you? Hormones in conventional meat? The treatment of animals? J.D. Roth, founder of the blog Get Rich Slowly advises: “Prioritize based on your own values and focus on those areas where organics make the most sense to you.” Roth says many of his readers put organic milk at the top of their lists. Me? I’ll sometimes buy conventional produce (and scrub it) if isn’t on the Environmental Working Group’s “dirty dozen” list.
Hold on Karl, we’re not going to the store yet. No matter what you think of PETA, it’s time to have a heart-to-heart with the mirror and:
• Rethink meat. If you eat meat, you probably know that conventionally raised meat is inhumane, hard on the environment, and expensive. When pediatrician and author Alan Greene ate only organic foods for three years he chose to cut back on meat to save money. You can, too, by adding meatless meals to your diet using cheap, easy staples such as beans and rice. If you do buy meat, buy cheaper cuts of organic meat, such as a rump roast (!), or consider enlisting your friends to “cowpool”—buy a large, discounted quantity of organic or local, pasture-raised meat.
Not enough room in your kitchen freezer? “I’ve seen freezers for a hundred bucks on eBay—somebody can’t wait to get rid of it,” says way-honed fitness expert Mark Sisson, who often blogs about thrifty ways to get high-quality protein, his budgetary priority. “So even if you add in the cost of your eBay freezer and the cost of a quarter cow, you’re still ahead of having purchased it at the butcher, and you’ve got a better cut of beef.” If you don’t want red meat but you’re not vegan, look for organic or local eggs. “Eggs are a great source of protein,” says Sisson. “And they are not expensive on a gram-for-gram of protein basis.”
Next, grab the kids, some scissors and ...
• Clip coupons. You heard it here first: Couponing will replace incentivizing as the new, hot, made-up gerund. Clip (or print) only those coupons you need—not for new stuff that looks cool (remember, coupons are marketing tools). Finding coupons for organics isn’t as easy as sifting through the newspaper circulars, so look for in-store fliers at natural food and grocery stores and in healthy lifestyle magazines (share a subscription with a buddy). If there’s an organic brand you really like, check the company’s web site for special offers.
Okay, Karl, game on! Grab your canvas bags and let’s:
• Shop strategically. Take your list to the store and stick to it. Never shop when you’re hungry. (Last time I went to the grocery store on an empty stomach I returned with three different flavors of soy pudding—and I don’t like soy pudding.) Ignore the in-store brownie samples—you’re better than that. Shop as much as you can in the outer aisles, where fresh food usually is located, and less in the center aisles, where processed stuff lurks. Ignoring the impulse items near the cash register will make your kids sulk, so perk them up by vowing to:
• Shop outside the conventional grocery store. Seek kid-friendly farmers markets, farm stands, and U-pick farms. Or join a CSA to find organic or sustainable and local food in season when it’s at peak flavor and most affordable. If you find something you love at the right price, buy more than you need and store it by freezing, canning, or drying (cutting cable TV out of your budget will free up time to do this).
Don’t think you have to avoid natural-food grocery stores. Of the more than 1,700 “365 Everyday Value” products that Whole Foods offers, about 1,200 are organic. Despite its nickname as “Whole Paycheck,” the natural foods giant is now wooing tightwads like me with “value tours” and Whole Deal value guides that include coupons, budget recipes and tips.
And don’t assume that conventional store prices are lower. In this product-to-product comparison, Whole Foods products are thriftier. Who knew!
While you’re at a natural foods store, don’t forget to:
• Bulk up. “A lot of times I think buying in bulk has a stigma,” says Roth. “People just don’t want to do it. And yet if they would buy bulk goods they could keep their grocery spending lower.” According to Barry Hirsch, a natural value guru (really) for Whole Foods, buying from bulk bins is about 20 percent cheaper than buying packaged goods. Of course, there are other benefits. “With our bulk bins you buy as much or as little as you want, and there’s less packaging, which is better for the environment.”
I am an awkwardly titled “Bulk Bin Queen,” and I buy my grains, cereals, nuts, beans, tea, and spices from bulk bins.
Now, you must:
• Cook more. Are you literally eating your 401(k) funds by dining out too much? In general, cooking at home is cheaper and healthier than eating out, and cooking from scratch is healthier than opening a box. The trade-off is that home-cooked meals take more time. Try doubling your recipes and freezing half for an easy later meal.
Get a slow cooker (the name crock pot, like “prune,” has been banished) and start meals before going to work. Or cook a bunch of meals once a month and freeze them. If you’re not much of a cook, pick easy, familiar recipes and involve the whole family. Need an un-intimidating cookbook? Go to the library (thrifty is the new sexy!) and borrow any cookbook by Mark Bittman.
Now untie your apron, because it’s time to:
• Grow something. If you’re lucky enough to have a little land, imagine it as an edible landscape that might save you a bundle. Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, grows several kitchen gardens on his modest one-third-acre lot in Maine. By weighing all of his organic harvest and doing careful price comparisons, Doiron and his wife estimated that last season’s harvest was worth $2,400!
He admits that this estimate doesn’t include the cost of labor, but says, “I’m also not factoring in the gym membership that I didn’t have to buy or the country club membership that I didn’t have to buy.” Are you getting the implications of this Karl, ye of hardiness zone 9?
If you have a yard, I implore you to abandon this column and grab a trowel. If you don’t have a yard, consider a container garden for tomatoes or herbs, or find a nearby community garden.
I am hereby muzzled by my word count. I’ll count on the Gristmill bloggers to carry on with more resourceful tips.
Best of luck,
Lou Bendrick
Former Southern California resident
This Friday, don’t just Buy Nothing—use nothing!
Ask Umbra on trash, toxics, and tots
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Comments
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Ted Clayton Posted 12:51 am
30 Jan 2009
Hunting & fishing your own meat is not only awesome fun & satisfaction, it yields the very healthiest & lowest cost meat. Yes, you can always spend an unlimited amount of money to hunt & fish (nothing unusual about $1,000/lb salmon), but my observation of people doing that is, that's what they headed out to do. No need for fancy boats, outboards, and spendy rifles ... and toss the Cabela's sports-wear catalog.
Meat-wise, perhaps above all else principle-wise, hunting & killing your own is the best ethical approach. I worry less about the pathogens & toxins in factory-meat, than I do about the fact that I'm supporting an all-round nasty arrangement, and shirking the ultimate responsibility - which is killing what I'm going to eat.
Most people know that hunting plugs straight into our essential, primal nature. Many, however, find themselves hugely surprised at the powerful responses that are triggered by foraging plant foods. Collecting botanical foods is probably the 800 pound sleeping gorilla. (Just watch the kids go bananas.)
Yeah, I did San Diego in the Navy (admittedly, a long time ago) and I (still) have a good idea what would-be gatherers are up against. Don't break laws (even silly ones) to get food-plants, but don't get too locked in on ol' Euel Gibbons, either.
There are cattle-raising districts where a major part of the forage is Prickly Pear cactus. They mount a big propane tank on a trailer, attach a long hose & flame-thrower nozzle and singe the spines off a patch of the plants. Cows learn the sound of the flame-thrower and the smell of toasted spines and come at a trot from a great distance. Try the barbecue, or a little campfire. Even a lighter will work. (No, you can't really wash or brush the spines off effectively enough: for a tiny taste, peel.)
Kelp is the #1 essential micro-nutrient source for animal-feed formulations, and has been for centuries. There is simply nothing else that covers health-optimization opportunities like seaweeds. Outstanding natural seasoning, too.
Though San Diego is no foraging paradise, it is by no means a bust, either. Remember, all arid country shows dramatic plant-flushes, when the occasional rain or wet season arrives. Foraging is always 'boom & bust' - learn to dry & freeze & can the windfalls.
Finally, get off commercial water, and garden. Aim to buy your own piece of dirt, with water under the ground, and irrigate your own cultivations. Until then, yank the geraniums out your pots and get radishes going (the greens are great too). And, collect containers and start sprouting. Many seeds make outstanding sprouts, and are among the most inexpensive of foods. Sprouting is a great karma thing, too, (like killing ones' own meat), since it demands considerable humility to do the little chores in a timely way, in order to have quality sprouts.
There ya go, Karl - see ya in the brush!
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sindark Posted 2:22 am
30 Jan 2009
a sibilant intake of breath
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mihan Posted 3:20 am
30 Jan 2009
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The Green Dude Posted 5:02 am
30 Jan 2009
Coupons are definitely another great way to save some scratch. I recommend this site - they have pretty good coupons on organic food, plus other green stuff that you might want to buy but is too expensive at regular price:
http://www.sustainlane.com/green-saver-discount-coupons/
Livin' la vida verde
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CyberBrook Posted 10:11 am
30 Jan 2009
Eco-Eating: Eating as if the Earth Matters at
http://www.brook.com/veg
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carrieschneider Posted 1:07 am
31 Jan 2009
http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Carpobrotus+eduli ...
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Ted Clayton Posted 4:08 am
01 Feb 2009
In forested & rural areas, roadsides are major foraging-habitat (not much under heavy timber) ... but in the old days we just left those berries for the birds. "They put lead in gasoline, ya know?!"
Now, (we banned lead in WA, oh, maybe a decade back), the old rule of thumb is being relaxed. If you're going to sell berries though (Rubus ursinus, $30+/gal - mmm!) you still have to stay back from roads (find unused logging roads, and clearcuts).
.. But as a tactic for eliminating invasive species, the pickles may serve mainly to get people over their self-conscious inhibition against picking along the roads. ;-)
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Tierra Miguel Farm Posted 7:25 am
01 Feb 2009
If you get to know your farmer, you'll know what's in your food and she/he is more likely to give you the occasional discount for repeat business.
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PermieWriter Posted 4:22 pm
01 Feb 2009
BTW, make sure the freezer isn't too old or you'll be paying more for electricity to keep it cold than you're saving on bulk cow. Keeping old fridges and freezers is generally a poor economy. We bought a second-hand chest freezer with Energy Star-like specs and filled the bottom with (carefully punctured) plastic water bottles. The extra thermal mass keep the temperature steady and our energy use down.
Eat what you grow, grow what you eat
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fmiller Posted 12:03 am
02 Feb 2009
In the past we have bought things like oats, dried beans, and various other grains in bulk from farmers at ridiculously cheap prices (turns out you don't need quite as many beans as you think you do...large bag of Jacob's cattle beans, anyone?), so we are able to supplement our share with those, plus stuff we grew last summer that we have in the freezer or the basement, and half a lamb that we bought relatively inexpensively from a local farm that we keep in the freezer.
At the risk of sounding like a smug organic-type, my point is that we eat extremely well and remarkably cheaply. The only downside (which happens to be an upside for me, as I like to cook) is that you spend a fair amount of time cooking and washing up when you eat like this. But it keeps you busy so you're not out spending money on other things...
Hope you can find a great CSA in SoCal, Karl. Some farmers (like ours) let you pay in installments, too, so you don't have to put all the money out up front.
- Trying-not-to-be-smug-in-VT (and really, who can be smug while wearing gloves, scarf, hat, long underwear and two pairs of socks inside the house?)
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Laura K Posted 12:36 am
02 Feb 2009
One really great way to get free organic produce, especially in California, that hasn't been mentioned yet is to scope out your neighborhood for homes with fruit trees in their yards (lemons, oranges, plums, cherries, etc). Many homeowners are happy to have you come and pick the fruit as it ripens so that they don't have to pick up the fruit as it rots on the ground under the tree. Try leaving a note in the mailbox with your phone number and an offer to pick fruit at the owner's convenience. It's even more attractive to the homeowner if you team up with a bunch of friends (or make it a service project for a school or local shelter) so that you can take away fruit in bulk and make fewer visits. You may have to invest in a ladder or fruit-picker tool.
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J4zonian Posted 4:15 am
03 Feb 2009
http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/index.php?p=1898
I'd change the order (vegetarianism at the top, gardening second) and I'd add 'political action to make our food/ag system healthier', as it will also will make you healthier, as depression and despair and all the physical problems that go with them (decreased immune functioning, eg) are reduced by action. And btw, both vegetarianism and gardening count as political action, though they aren't enough alone. Giving money to your political opponents (corporations) doesn't make sense, and any way to avoid that is a leap forward.
But that couponing? It's far more likely to waste money, buying things corporations want you to buy that you don't need or want. Even though you save a few cents, in a whole systems approach, you spend more dollars.
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lovin homemade Posted 4:16 am
03 Feb 2009
Oh by the way this is oh so much better when you make your own bread. ;0)
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willa Posted 2:18 pm
03 Feb 2009
Both Whole Foods and my local health food place offer this discount. In fact, the local store also offers discounts on cases of products--anything from body lotion to Quorn patties, I just let them know what I want and they call me when it comes and give me a discount! I don't know if this exists anywhere else, though.
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GreenEye Posted 7:42 am
04 Feb 2009
I think one of the important things to consider when trying to identify what foods are and are not good for you -and- what can fit within a budget, is to try to identify what foods are likely to be the safest, and conversely, which ones are the most dangerous. That includes identifying as much as possible what sources of food are the safest. Keep in mind that not every food store or resource has benefits or problems across the board. Some may have terrible produce and excellent meat for instance.
What are your personal choices? Are you concerned with every possible contaminant in your food, or are you trying to increase the overall quality of what you eat in general while not breaking the bank? Is 80% good enough? Identify how much you're willing to put up with. If you have babies or young children should also enter into your decisions.
In our family we buy all of our fruit and vegetables from coops, have cut down on meat, and when we do buy meat, we purchase it from stores where we have a confidence in the quality of the product. We also eat some fish. Because we don't have any younger children we feel this is safe in small doses.
As far as the foraging in a median, I have to agree with Laura; if you ever visit a northern region in the winter, just look at the snow 15 or 20 feet away from a freeway. Yuk! (or as we Minnesotans say, Ish.)
Here are a few great resources that we use:
Almost 300 excellent healthful meal recipes: Valley Natural Foods Recipes
For those that need gluten-free, they also have almost 3 dozen recipes here: VNF Gluten Free
(They also have great coupons: VNF Coupons & Specials)
If you live in the Twin Cities, they have a great store.
If you do eat fish, here are a few places where you can figure out which fish are the safest to eat with regard to mercury levels:
Mercury Levels in Fish
About Mercury in Fish
EPA Fish Advisories
If you want to know what those "green" labels actually mean, here are two sites that explain it:
Greener Choices
USDA
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ddietike Posted 8:29 am
12 Feb 2009
If you have time, anyone can check out my blog Healthy Living AZ which is all about healthy food and exercise around Arizona!
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rehillo Posted 8:35 am
19 Feb 2009
And thanks, Lou, for a great column.
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