Humane farming and selective consumerism (vs. factory farming)

[Kaio]

@Hello_Again

In NYC Farmer’s markets are set up to accept SNAP (food stamps) and the City gives out Health Bucks as an incentive to use SNAP at Farmer’s markets.

So does our neighborhood market in Chicago (presumably all markets in Chicago, but I don’t know for sure). As well, our nearest market is part of a program that allows them to price match your SNAP benefit “withdrawal” up to $10; in other words, if you pay for $10 worth of market tokens, they will give you $20 worth.

However, $20 really doesn’t go very far, which is the main issue. 12 oz of maple syrup is $12. A 12 oz jar of preserves is $8. A quart of strawberries is $6, or 2 for $10. The food/produce is amazing, but the fact remains that we can buy very little of it, and have to get most of our groceries from the much cheaper mass market grocery store. At least Trader Joes is reasonable in both quality and price, most of the time. But we can’t afford the amazing cheeses on offer there, much as we have tried and loved the samples.

This food is expensive as hell right now, though that can change if there is greater demand for it leading, eventually, to more producers and better systems of transport. While there’s no contest in flavor between farmers market strawberries and grocery store strawberries, I can get twice as much for $8 at the grocery than I can get for $10 at the market. Sometimes the nearly-empty bank account wins.

My CSA also offers half-priced shares for low income families. We members pay a little extra to subsidize the half-price shares. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to subsidize or discount our meat & dairy deliveries the way its done now.

I need to find out if any of our CSAs do this. I don’t think they do, but I would sign up in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

@snowthx

I think this is a very important point and bears repeating. My teenage daughter considers herself a “pescetarian” for health and ethical reasons. I want to impress upon her that by removing herself from the “meat” equation entirely, she has essentially neutralized her vote and her dollars. By leaving the game altogether, you will not been helping make any difference in a system with which you do not agree. IMHO.

Depends on your perspective. Not like the entire world will go vegan any time soon, but any loss of demand for factory farmed products results in that style of farming being less profitable. If they can’t sell it, they can’t make money on it. If it’s less profitable, operations will eventually shrink, because why produce more than they can sell? They lose some demand to veg*ism, lose some to ethical meat eaters, the business becomes less profitable. With the eventual hope that demand will dry up so completely, one way or another, that it puts them out of business.

BTW, SeaDragonTattoo, thanks to you I stopped by Urban Orchard again. While most of their prices are out of reach, it turns out that the locally-produced milk is actually cheaper than Trader Joes organic. I am ecstatically happy about this.

[Kaio]

Oops, missed the edit:

@Kaio

However, $20 really doesn’t go very far, which is the main issue. 12 oz of maple syrup is $12. A 12 oz jar of preserves is $8. A quart of strawberries is $6, or 2 for $10. The food/produce is amazing, but the fact remains that we can buy very little of it, and have to get most of our groceries from the much cheaper mass market grocery store. At least Trader Joes is reasonable in both quality and price, most of the time. But we can’t afford the amazing cheeses on offer there, much as we have tried and loved the samples.

If we were free to buy whatever we wanted, even limiting crafted products like cheese and jam and buying mostly produce, we could easily spend $60-80 a week, for two people, and this doesn’t account for needing non-produce things like flour, cereal, and (this year, no vendors at the market) milk. Our benefits only cover half our monthly budget even when we do eat cheap; covering the farmers market too is a real financial juggle, and usually means getting only 2 or 3 things, at most. Which sucks, because 2 quarts of strawberries are gone in two days. (They’re REALLY good.)

[SeaDragonTattoo]

@Kaio

BTW, SeaDragonTattoo, thanks to you I stopped by Urban Orchard again. While most of their prices are out of reach, it turns out that the locally-produced milk is actually cheaper than Trader Joes organic. I am ecstatically happy about this.

Hey, that’s some good news, at least!

[Kaio]

Temporarily resurrecting the zombie, because Urban Orchard has closed…

So I’m looking for other sources for local family-farmed dairy in Chicago. Near Andersonville would be great. Can anyone help?