To get ideas on where to find real food near you, www.Localharvest.org provides maps and information. You can find things like farms, stores, farmers markets, restaurants, butchers, CSAs, and co-ops. I didn’t see how to sort by distance so scroll through the results because my nearest farmers’ market was halfway down the list.
Whole Foods is not considered in this list. Almost ten years ago, I called a Whole Foods to compare prices and asked the person who answered for the meat department. A guy got on the phone, and I asked him how much grass-fed ground beef cost by the pound. He didn’t bother to put the phone down or cover it up, he just yelled to somebody, “How much is that crap over there?” No kidding. After a few other casual exchanges between them, probably where he clarified which crap he meant, he said “$5.99 a pound.”
People always complain about the cost of food; our grandparents complained about food prices. I’ve found from going through magazines from the past 100 years that food prices are well below the national rate of inflation. (It’s also fun to look at old magazine ads in general.) I called Whole Foods again today to ask about the price of a pound of grass-fed beef and a woman answered, kindly checked, and said, “$7.49.” That’s 25% inflation. The rate of inflation during that time was 33%. If food prices were rising at the same rate as inflation, that meat would be over $8. Many (most?) Americans do struggle to pay for food, but there are a combination of factors in play. In August 2024, Trump said that bacon was up five times since 2021; he needs to find a new meat department. I live in the suburbs of D.C. and our food prices are much higher than other areas, for example, where my mom lives in Michigan. I’ve seen bacon come down this year, in fact, I bought a package on sale last week, without nitrites, for $3.79. This time of year, having a BLT with lots of tomato sliced fresh out of the garden – Heaven!
