Expense of Organic Food

[tater03]

Why is it that organic food is so expensive? I am on a budget and just cannot afford to go all organic. The other thing is I never see any coupons for organic food. We are going to start our own garden next summer so hopefully this will help out with the cost. Does anyone know of any places where you can find coupons online for organic products? thanks.

[xanadu324]

I believe there were a few coupons on couponbug for Wild Oats, but that was a while ago. I do have an idea, though. If you happen to have friends or family that also want to go organic, why not go halfsies with them? I do that with my mom-in-law, because honestly, the stuff always comes in huge bags, so it's quite easy to see that you won't use all of it for a long time. Hope this helps.

[SageMother]

Much of the added cost of organic foods lies in the transport and storage issues. Shelf life can be shorter for some organic foods, meaning the potential for loss is greater.

We buy organic flour and have found it must be used sooner than "regular"flour because the substances used to prevent the growth of some insect eggs isn't present. This omission keeps the flour in the organic category, but also means the flour cannot remain available for sale to the public nearly as long as "regular" flour.

Grocers have to compensate for that shorter shelf life as their overhead doesn't change.

[tater03]

Never thought about it having a shorter shelf life but that makes a lot of sense. I love the idea of going halfies. I will have to see if someone in my family would want to do that. thanks.

[xanadu324]

Great point, sage, I didn't even think to weigh in the fact that it doesn't last as long because of the un-added things that "normal" food has.
I guess it's along the same lines of a bag of pre-made cookies costs almost $4 (depending on the brand) and you can buy about 3 cookie mixes for that same price.
All factors in, I suppose.

[3plus3]

I think organic food is very expensive. But I guess you can't really put a price on your health though.

[emsy99]

There has been a lot recently about buying free range chicken. I was buying 2 chicken breasts today and there was only a 50p difference between the free range and "normal". So i went free range. I am a lot more conscious of it these days and have even started to buy mayo made with free range eggs.

[MrsH]

I just learned today that it is a good idea to check the frozen section for organic meat. Apparently it is much cheaper.

[emsy99]

Meat in general is cheaper from the frozen section - but I wonder why, and it puts me off so I never buy it! Does anyone know why it is cheaper? Thanks!

[Lyndsey]

Yes, try the healthyshopper.ca if you are in Canada. I am not sure about the US, but buying in bulk from an organic growers network can help too, especially if you get a few friends in on it.