I finally got a chance to go a do some grocery shopping this week and compare the prices of the organic products to that of their non-organic counterparts. I had some interesting findings, but first, I'll show you what those findings were. This particular shopping trip was to the Target off of County Rd. B. in Roseville, MN.
My Organic Shopping List: Adjusted Prices are in parentheses. Total amount spent on organic food in red if different than listed price.
Regular Green Peppers: $.99/pepper
Organic Green Peppers: $2.29/pepper
Regular Carrots: $.89/lb
Organic Carrots: $1.09/lb
Bananas: $.49/lb ($.88) - I bought regular bananas instead of organic.
Organic Bananas: $.89/lb
Tomatoes: $2.99/lb
Organic Tomatoes: $4.99/12oz ($6.67/lb)
Beef: $3.29/lb(sale)
Grass Fed Beef: $4.49/lb (sale)
Chicken: 5.99/14oz
Free Range Chicken: 4.49/14oz (sale)
Milk: 1.74/.5 gal
Organic Milk: 3.19/.5 gal
So how much more expensive is organic than regular groceries? In total, on these organic items, I spent $20.54. In comparison, if I had bought the regular items I would have spent $15.89. Buying organic then, was a 29% increase over the cost of non-organic items. I'll try to put that in perspective a bit. Normally, I spend about $75, every time I go to the grocery story (on average). If I were trying to buy everything from my grocery list organic, I would end up spending about 96.75 (based on a 29% price increase).
However, that's not the whole story either. If you look closely at some of the price comparisons per item, you'll notice that some are more significant than others. Tomatoes and green peppers had the highest increase in price over my entire list. On the other hand, I found that it really wasn't too much more expensive to buy carrots or bananas organic. These items respectively cost $.20 and $.40 more per lb. Even if you bought large quantities of them, it's unlikely you would notice a huge hike in your grocery bill since both items are available for less than $1.25/lb.
I was also able to find some meat on sale for cheaper than what I would have expected. The Free Range Chicken was actually cheaper on sale than the the regular chicken and the grass fed beef wasn't exorbitantly more expensive than the regular beef. Though I doubt this is always the case, what it does prove is that you can find good deals on these items if you look hard enough.
Of course when making these purchases we have to weigh the costs of the environmental impact as well. It may not be too long before humanity realizes the impact of many industrial farming practices. However, it's equally hard to tell a poor person living from paycheck-to-paycheck that they should spend 29% more on groceries. The questions then are twofold. They are "Can we afford to buy organic food?" and "Can we afford not too?"
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Simpler Living, Compassionate Life
The tricky thing about simple living is that sometimes it's a lot more complicated than what the typical anglo-european American lifestyle is. The problem is, that we like to be comfortable in our Suburban homes with our suburban fences, our suburban stores with suburban convenience, and our suburban lifestyles with suburban isolation. It's all too convenient. We buy things that we just have to throw away when we're done. We go home and don't have to talk to our neighbors when we're there. We shop without ever bumping into our neighbors, and we spend without ever having to know where our purchase comes from. It's easy! It's uncomplicated!
As I read Simpler Living: Compassionate Life, I couldn't help but notice that most of the writers were calling us to things that required intentional living. The suggestions therein were not simple in the sense that they made life easier for us. However, the more that I read the reflections and the thoughts of the advocates for a simple life, the more that I fell in love with their stories and their intentional living. Evy McDonald reminded us of how easily we fall into the trap of seeking fulfillment in our jobs and in the acquisition of money. Juliet Schor and Henry Nouwen reminded us that although we may be materially rich, we are poor in the area of time. Cecile Andrews reminded us that in our suburban lifestyles, we've forgotten how to laugh and to enjoy the presence of our neighbors.
There are a couple of themes that really stuck with me after reading this book. The first one is the issue of time. Henry Nouwen writes "In our contemporary society, it often seems that not money but time enslaves us." (54) We often spend this time on the acquisition of money so that we can buy more things, but as Schor poignantly asks "What if our desires keep pace with our incomes, so that getting richer doesn't make us more satisfied?" (33). We put so much time and energy into improving our standard of living, that we've neglected our quality of life. We put in long hours to acquire things that ultimately distance us from the people we love.
The second theme that seemed to run throughout the book was community. Ultimately, it's the people who surround us in our lives that give us the sense of belonging, love purpose that are essential for every human being. Cecile Andrews gives us the best illustration of that by advocating for stronger neighborhoods through community stores, neighborhood centers and more block parties. Andrews writes that these types of establishments help to build community and notes that through these small community businesses, "I can have a great social life on Saturday night just hanging out by the produce." Ha! How often do we seek entertainment by shelling out $10, $20, or even $50? What if we could all just hang out at the produce section and see everybody we need?
Living simple is not as easy as it sounds, but I do think that it makes our lives better: less cluttered, with more time and greater meaning. I think we get more bang for our buck (so to speak) when we learn to do this. I hope and pray that as we grow as a community of faith, we learn how to live better, simpler lives.
As I read Simpler Living: Compassionate Life, I couldn't help but notice that most of the writers were calling us to things that required intentional living. The suggestions therein were not simple in the sense that they made life easier for us. However, the more that I read the reflections and the thoughts of the advocates for a simple life, the more that I fell in love with their stories and their intentional living. Evy McDonald reminded us of how easily we fall into the trap of seeking fulfillment in our jobs and in the acquisition of money. Juliet Schor and Henry Nouwen reminded us that although we may be materially rich, we are poor in the area of time. Cecile Andrews reminded us that in our suburban lifestyles, we've forgotten how to laugh and to enjoy the presence of our neighbors.
There are a couple of themes that really stuck with me after reading this book. The first one is the issue of time. Henry Nouwen writes "In our contemporary society, it often seems that not money but time enslaves us." (54) We often spend this time on the acquisition of money so that we can buy more things, but as Schor poignantly asks "What if our desires keep pace with our incomes, so that getting richer doesn't make us more satisfied?" (33). We put so much time and energy into improving our standard of living, that we've neglected our quality of life. We put in long hours to acquire things that ultimately distance us from the people we love.
The second theme that seemed to run throughout the book was community. Ultimately, it's the people who surround us in our lives that give us the sense of belonging, love purpose that are essential for every human being. Cecile Andrews gives us the best illustration of that by advocating for stronger neighborhoods through community stores, neighborhood centers and more block parties. Andrews writes that these types of establishments help to build community and notes that through these small community businesses, "I can have a great social life on Saturday night just hanging out by the produce." Ha! How often do we seek entertainment by shelling out $10, $20, or even $50? What if we could all just hang out at the produce section and see everybody we need?
Living simple is not as easy as it sounds, but I do think that it makes our lives better: less cluttered, with more time and greater meaning. I think we get more bang for our buck (so to speak) when we learn to do this. I hope and pray that as we grow as a community of faith, we learn how to live better, simpler lives.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
What do I need?
Being a poor graduate student with nothing but loans and a moderate salary waiting for me at the end of the seminary tunnel, I've felt a little bit nervous about "going organic." I make a very modest salary as a part time youth director and don't have a lot of extra cash to spend on things like organic groceries. Do I support the idea of organic produce? You bet! But why should I pay for organic produce and groceries that are sometimes two or even three times more expensive than the non-organic variety? Do I really need to buy organic?
But then I look around at my surroundings - I look around at the stuff in my life that I consider to be a necessity, and I wonder how much of it really is. I pay about $60 per month for my cell phone, which includes unlimited texting. The truth of the matter is, I hate having a cell phone. It's always ringing at inopportune times - either when I'm trying to get away from the pressures of modern life, sometimes when I'm driving, or when I'm sitting in class :). Do I really need a cell phone? Do I need people to be able to get a hold of me at all hours of the day? Our society and our culture says that I do, but I'm not so sure that's the case.
I have a car as well as bike and a scooter for transportation. I have an X-Box, for entertainment purposes so I can play DVD's and video games. I own my own laptop and even have a home printer for that laptop. In addition to my oven/stove, I have a George Foreman, an outdoor charcoal grill, a crockpot, and a griddle. Do I really need all of this stuff? I could easily simplify my transportation, I don't need electronics to entertain me, and my oven/stove basically performs all the functions of the other devices I listed. Yet despite all this stuff, there's always something new out there that I want. Do I need it though?
In our book Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, Evy McDonald writes an article called "Spending Money as if Life Really Mattered." In it she says "The inflation of our desiers has resulted in 'poverty consciousness' - where we think we're poor when our salaries are twenty-, thrity-, forty-, or even one hundred-thousand dollars a year. This is a crisis of perception. We have continued to confuse our standard of living with quality of life." (64). So when I look at all the things that I have acquired in my life I have to wonder how much of this stuff is actually improving the quality of my life.
The same thinking applies to our food choices in some ways. Often we confuse food that improves our standard of living with food that improves our quality of life. Take fast food for example. It's quick, cheap and easy. By choosing to eat it, we save time and money, thus giving us a higher standard of living. But the cost of eating fast food hurts our quality of life. Our health suffers, our energy levels drop and we lose out on the joys of learning to cook.
This brings us back to why buying organic food is worth the extra cost. The first reason is obvious: It's a better choice from an environmental standpoint. The second reason is less obvious: It improves our quality of life. By eating organic, we are putting less chemicals into our bodies, we are helping to sustain a healthy environment and are promoting better eating habits. Although buying organic foods might force us to cut back in other areas, I would argue at least for now, that it's worth it.
But then I look around at my surroundings - I look around at the stuff in my life that I consider to be a necessity, and I wonder how much of it really is. I pay about $60 per month for my cell phone, which includes unlimited texting. The truth of the matter is, I hate having a cell phone. It's always ringing at inopportune times - either when I'm trying to get away from the pressures of modern life, sometimes when I'm driving, or when I'm sitting in class :). Do I really need a cell phone? Do I need people to be able to get a hold of me at all hours of the day? Our society and our culture says that I do, but I'm not so sure that's the case.
I have a car as well as bike and a scooter for transportation. I have an X-Box, for entertainment purposes so I can play DVD's and video games. I own my own laptop and even have a home printer for that laptop. In addition to my oven/stove, I have a George Foreman, an outdoor charcoal grill, a crockpot, and a griddle. Do I really need all of this stuff? I could easily simplify my transportation, I don't need electronics to entertain me, and my oven/stove basically performs all the functions of the other devices I listed. Yet despite all this stuff, there's always something new out there that I want. Do I need it though?
In our book Simpler Living, Compassionate Life, Evy McDonald writes an article called "Spending Money as if Life Really Mattered." In it she says "The inflation of our desiers has resulted in 'poverty consciousness' - where we think we're poor when our salaries are twenty-, thrity-, forty-, or even one hundred-thousand dollars a year. This is a crisis of perception. We have continued to confuse our standard of living with quality of life." (64). So when I look at all the things that I have acquired in my life I have to wonder how much of this stuff is actually improving the quality of my life.
The same thinking applies to our food choices in some ways. Often we confuse food that improves our standard of living with food that improves our quality of life. Take fast food for example. It's quick, cheap and easy. By choosing to eat it, we save time and money, thus giving us a higher standard of living. But the cost of eating fast food hurts our quality of life. Our health suffers, our energy levels drop and we lose out on the joys of learning to cook.
This brings us back to why buying organic food is worth the extra cost. The first reason is obvious: It's a better choice from an environmental standpoint. The second reason is less obvious: It improves our quality of life. By eating organic, we are putting less chemicals into our bodies, we are helping to sustain a healthy environment and are promoting better eating habits. Although buying organic foods might force us to cut back in other areas, I would argue at least for now, that it's worth it.
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