Eating for Sustainability: An Experiment Pt. 1

Is it possible to eat healthfully and ethically while on a budget? I can honestly say that I've never had to figure out the answer to that question. But I've wondered for awhile now about whether or not the local food movement is accessible to folks who can't afford to buy their meat from the farmer's market and who would balk at how much I pay each week for organic milk.  So...thanks to my sister-in-law's comment during a moment of New Year's susceptibility...here I go on a culinary and economic adventure:  I'm fixin' to track my food expenses and cooking habits to see if I can rein in my spending while strengthening my commitment to a healthy local economy, a healthy planet, and healthy (and hopefully tasty) food for my family. 

Currently, I would guesstimate that I spend $200 each week on groceries, for my family of four. Not all of it is local, organic, or unprocessed, but I do my best without making myself crazier than I already am.

•  I spend $50 each week on my CSA membership with Fair Shares*.  
• I buy organic milk at $6 a pop each week. 
• I buy pricey bread that has lots of fiber, $3-4 each week. And I'm hooked on expensive crusty bread. Maybe I'll learn how to make it myself.
• I'm an egg weirdo too, and spend $4-5 on a carton of free range eggs. 
• Sometimes I purchase a bag of chicken breasts in a moment of heavy-hearted weakness, but I purchase my meat directly from farmers as often as I can. Here in a week or two, I'll be purchasing 1/3 of a hog with a couple of neighbors. My cost will be about $300-400, but that should be enough pork to last me about a year. (Exception: BACON!! We are gluttons when it comes to bacon.) 
• Things like yogurt, cheese, lunchmeat, pasta, condiments, and canned goods are still beholden to big business from who-knows-where. Frosted Flakes and chips are concessions to my kids, who I feel bad for sometimes. But I'll be darned if I can force myself to purchase a package of Chips Ahoy. I'll make the cookies myself, thanks.
• I buy grocery store produce to supplement my CSA membership as needed. It's a mix of organic and non-organic. There's no real method to that madness--sometimes I can't bear to eat a strawberry that has been fumigated with pesticides, and other times I can't stomach the pricetag on the organic version. No idea why this varies each week, it just does.
• I will not track the cost of my adult beverage purchases. But I might talk about how much I enjoy cooking with a glass of wine in my hand.

So there you have it, a current snapshot of my shopping habits currently. From this starting point, I hope to be able to cut costs and continue to eat well. Who knows, maybe this will inspire me to forever give up bagged chicken breasts. Wish me luck!

*CSA=community supported agriculture. It's a food system in which consumers purchase subscription for a weekly allotment of food from a farmer. The consumers pay up front for a season's worth of food, and then they are at the mercy of weather and pests along with the farmer. If it's a bumper crop, good for everybody. If there's a drought, slim pickin's all around as well. Fair Shares is a multi-farm CSA here in St. Louis that includes meat, eggs, and dairy in the weekly boxes. It's been a really great way to get a variety of local food each week, and you can find out more about it at https://fairshares.org/