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Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 12:36:43 -0400
From: Gary Elliott <gelliott@london.skyscape.net>
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To: seaseal@got.net
Subject: Re: food costs
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Food is cheaper now than it has ever been! Look at the basics, flour,
beans, rice, eggs, milk, meat etc, and compare how long it takes the
average worker to earn enough income to buy these and you will have to
agree. HOwever, when you go to the grocery store and look at the
prepared foods that one can buy, you can think that the average meal
cost is higher. There is a packaged pasta dinner that is sold at our
local grocery store that consists of fresh pasta, a packet of sauce, and
some precut strips of chicken. It sells for 9.99, and it says it will
feed two-three people. If one would buy the individual components, I
would think the price would be about 1/2.
What we are often buying in the grocery store is manufactured food, and
are paying for the factory labour and overhead to do what we have
previously done at home. One can spend $40.00 a week for food, or
$100/week, The choice is how much labour is included in what we buy.
As for inflation being a problem, please enlighten us on just what
products are increasing in price. There are always price hikes in things
during periods of low inflation, such as know, don't take anecdotal
stories and extrapolate them into the big picture.
Gary Elliott
Sylvan Organic Farm
Parkhill, Ontario
Cecile Mills wrote:
>
>
>> From: "Bluestem Associates" <bluestem@webserf.net>
>>
>> Super Center on a Saturday afternoon and you will see that Larry
>> Lunchbucket, Joe Sixpack, and Mr. & Mrs. Frontporch are quite content
>> with the food system as it is currently structured. Their food costs
>> them less and less (at the till, and as a percentage of their
>> disposable income), and it's more and more convenient for them, every
>> year.
>>
> Althought Bluestem mentions *university in the '60s* my guess is he or
> she didn't do much shopping. Anyone who things food is less expensive
> now than even ten years ago must not spend much time or money in a
> grocery store. I am recalling George Bush's exclamation at a bar-code
> reader (What's that thing?), showing he didn't spend much time
> shopping for food either!
>
> Goodness, run out and buy some fish ($$$ more than in the '60s, '70s,
> '80s, and even early '90s as most is now raised on fish ranches as
> natural stock dies out in our pesticide-laden lakes, rivers, and bays)
> or vegetables (I just paid $1.39 for a head of lettuce, locally grown
> in season).
>
> Sometimes the media can make things seem so real--like the *no
> inflation* story that's making the rounds right now, or the finagling
> of numbers so you can say *food is a smaller percentage of disposable
> income*---now, just what does that mean to you?
>
> It means to me that you aren't alarmed about the cost of food and that
> means you just aren't paying attention.
>
> I would encourage people who do shop to remark (if only to themselves)
> on how much of their budget goes to food.
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Food is cheaper now than it has ever been! Look at the basics, flour, beans,
rice, eggs, milk, meat etc, and compare how long it takes the average worker
to earn enough income to buy these and you will have to agree. HOwever,
when you go to the grocery store and look at the prepared foods that one
can buy, you can think that the average meal cost is higher. There is a
packaged pasta dinner that is sold at our local grocery store that consists
of fresh pasta, a packet of sauce, and some precut strips of chicken. It
sells for 9.99, and it says it will feed two-three people. If one would
buy the individual components, I would think the price would be about 1/2.
What we are often buying in the grocery store is manufactured food, and are paying for the factory labour and overhead to do what we have previously done at home. One can spend $40.00 a week for food, or $100/week, The choice is how much labour is included in what we buy.
As for inflation being a problem, please enlighten us on just what products are increasing in price. There are always price hikes in things during periods of low inflation, such as know, don't take anecdotal stories and extrapolate them into the big picture.
Gary Elliott
Sylvan Organic Farm
Parkhill, Ontario
Cecile Mills wrote:
From: "Bluestem Associates" <bluestem@webserf.net>Althought Bluestem mentions *university in the '60s* my guess is he or she didn't do much shopping. Anyone who things food is less expensive now than even ten years ago must not spend much time or money in a grocery store. I am recalling George Bush's exclamation at a bar-code reader (What's that thing?), showing he didn't spend much time shopping for food either!Super Center on a Saturday afternoon and you will see that Larry Lunchbucket, Joe Sixpack, and Mr. & Mrs. Frontporch are quite content with the food system as it is currently structured. Their food costs them less and less (at the till, and as a percentage of their disposable income), and it's more and more convenient for them, every year.Goodness, run out and buy some fish ($$$ more than in the '60s, '70s, '80s, and even early '90s as most is now raised on fish ranches as natural stock dies out in our pesticide-laden lakes, rivers, and bays) or vegetables (I just paid $1.39 for a head of lettuce, locally grown in season).
Sometimes the media can make things seem so real--like the *no inflation* story that's making the rounds right now, or the finagling of numbers so you can say *food is a smaller percentage of disposable income*---now, just what does that mean to you?
It means to me that you aren't alarmed about the cost of food and that means you just aren't paying attention.
I would encourage people who do shop to remark (if only to themselves) on how much of their budget goes to food.
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