Re: price of food

Gary Elliott (gelliott@london.skyscape.net)
Mon, 05 Apr 1999 23:50:42 -0400

I am afraid that I must persist...Organic food is dirt cheap. Get closer
to the source of the food. If it comes from farther than, say 200 mi from
you, perhaps you should not be eating a lot of it. Organic oranges in
Michigan or Ontario? Maybe apples make more sense. Seafood in Saskatoon?
Eat beef, lamb, chicken, pork, raised locally. I am part of the problem,
as an organic producer. I grow spelt, soybeans, etc. and it seems I am
always negotiating with a buyer who wants my crop to ship to Holland or
Japan. Part of the problem with high organic prices is that the organic
food system tries to mimic the conventional system, with California canned
tomatoes being available in New Hampshire in March.

What I am saying may strike you all as too revolutionary, but it is time
to rethink how we do most everything. Global trade in ideas, regional
commerce in products. Maybe then we can attempt to establish the true cost
of what we need. If I can afford the price of organic grapes from Chile in
January, then we probably are not factoring in all the true costs of the
grapes.

Follow what the best restaurants do, cook locally produced, organic food
in season. Supply chains are supposed to be broken, a lot. Then you get
more efficient distribution, of whatever you need.

Gary Elliott
Sylvan Organic Farm
Parkhill Ontario
Anita Graf (Staff)" wrote:

> Gary Elliot wrote:
>
> > One can spend $40.00 a week for food, or
> > $100/week, The choice is how much labour is included in what we buy.
>
> Well, it also makes a big difference if you're buying organic. We
> buy for two, the only "processed" foods we buy are bread, cereal,
> pasta and tomato sauce/paste, we buy very little meat, but because
> we buy the organic version of everything we can, we find it difficult
> to spend less than $80-$100/week. (But I agree that non organic food
> is dirt cheap -- and junk food seems the cheapest of all.) Anita
>
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