Is buying our dinner at the Dollar Store, right near the plastic pink pony and comb set, next?
There is nothing “cheap” about cheap food. Cheap is an illusion–there is no cheap food, or no cheap anything, for that matter. There is only the real cost of production–what it would take to produce the product in a way that is healthful, environmentally sound, socially just and culturally appropriate. If we buy it for less than the real cost of production, someone will pay the difference in price–either our health, or the environment or the child laborer somewhere halfway around the globe. Someone or something will pay the difference for what we perceive as “cheap,” always. But what about the people who really can’t afford to eat organic? I’d say that as a nation we cannot afford not to eat local and organic. Many people live in food insecurity, even here in Marin County, one of the wealthiest counties in the country.So how would more expensive real food solve this issue? The answer is easy: A local food system benefits everyone. For example, only because we have local farms here i
