Surprised nobody said meat yet. Current prices are only possible through gigantic subsidies and the blatant disregard for even the most basic of animal wellbeing and that's not even starting to factor in the environmental and climate damage meat production ensues.
I agree with you but there are more ethical ways to eat meat while also saving money. Last year my wife and I purchased 1/4 of an entire cow from a farm about 35 miles north of us (friends and family bought the other 3/4). This cow was responsibly raised, grass fed, on a small, local farm. We received 200 pounds of meat with probably a dozen different cuts of meat. This includes dozens of pounds of excellent steak and the meat is simply amazing. We will definitely be going this route moving forward as we averaged the price per pound to ~$4/lb which is far less than the local grocery.
I understand this isn't possible for everyone as we also had to purchase a chest freezer which requires space but has made our grocery bill far smaller and the meat we are eating much better in many ways.
The problem is that you are still contributing to demand for meat. It would be impossible to meet all of the current demand by "ethical" means, so the only way for meat to become more ethical across the whole industry is for the demand for meat to go down massively (or the supply is reduced by legislation). And I don't see that legislation being likely if people are still so invested in eating meat.
I wish I could do that. Gotta save up for a chest freezer and hope I can make it work! Lol
I started eating substantially less meat over the last 10 years. The money I save eating less goes towards higher quality meats from small farms. Weirdly, it depends on if you know where to go. If you buy from a farm that also butchers and packages the meat, it's going to cost and arm and a leg because they are selling both convenience and are aware that audience they are selling to has more money. However, if you purchase say 1/2 a cow and arrange to have it butchered, you pay a lot upfront, but it's even cheaper in the long run. Only problem is, you'll likely need a chest freezer.
Yeah, I've been making efforts to reduce meat from my diet for plenty of reasons. But I enjoy the taste, so I'm excited for lab-grown meat!
I loved the taste of meat and it kept me from quitting for years, and I will say that I don’t miss it nearly as much as I thought I would.
I would argue that of the three items you listed (bananas, coffee, chocolate) that the main reason those items are “cheap” is exploitation of the workers and economies of the global south.
https://daily.jstor.org/fruit-geopeelitics-americas-banana-republics/
This is just one popular science article on the topic, and it just brushes the surface of how colonial politics have stripped the global south of resources while simultaneously building capital in the global north.
This single pane comic is the jist of it.
What about Asia? Are we forgetting Africa is China's China right now?
"This Jacobo, he's making us pay minimum wages!... and that's not all, he's taking our unused land and giving it back to the people! Does that sound familiar?"
Snack cakes. Do you want to know why America has an obesity epidemic?
Because a whole box of Swiss cake rolls is $2.50 at Walmart and a deli salad is $5.00.
Yeah, but they can keep those deli snack cakes on the shelf for years until they're sold; you have to throw the salad out after a couple days. /s
The United States subsidizes the hell out of dairy products. Dairy (and by extension, beef) is way, way cheaper than it should be.
For anyone curious about this, go google “cheese caves”. The US government has massive caverns full of cheese. The government keeps buying cheese to subsidize the dairy industry, and ensure they keep enough dairy cows around.
But this also means they have a metric fuckload of cheese, and no way to get rid of it. They can’t just give it away to the public or sell it at cost, because that would crash the price, which would harm the farmers, which would defeat the entire purpose of the subsidy in the first place. So they just lock it in a cave. The government has entire caves that are just packed full of cheese. It’ll never be eaten, and is simply left there to age.
I believe one of the biggest reasons for even keeping the cheese around at all (instead of just doing something like tossing it into a volcano) is so they can use it as a strategic food reserve during war or famine. If, for instance, the government suddenly needs to feed a much larger army, it can start tapping into that massive food reserve simply by opening the cheese caves and pulling out the (now very aged) cheese. But that’s a very large “what if”. Or maybe there’s some big disease that wipes out the majority of the dairy cows. The government would be able to keep shelves stocked while farmers work on replenishing their herds.
Government cheese is called that for a reason. Anyways I totally agree with you but it's interesting so I'm just providing a link for anyone who is interested in learning more.
Government cheese is a commodity cheese that was controlled by the US federal government from World War II to the early 1980s. Government cheese was created to maintain the price of dairy when dairy industry subsidies artificially increased the supply of milk and created a surplus of milk that was then converted into cheese, butter, or powdered milk. The cheese, along with the butter and dehydrated milk powder, was stored in over 150 warehouses across 35 states.
Isn't there the thing where the cheese needs to age by just sitting there, the farmer needs cash flow, so the cheese is put up as collateral. (But yes there is government cheese too.)
Rice. A 20lb bag can provide 70% of your food volume for a month and costs like $10. Easily the best poverty food hack there is.
Unfortunately a lot of rice is contaminated with arsenic due to pesticides. The only way to remove the arsenic also removes most of its nutrients. So you might be better off going for a different grain like wheat, oats or barley.
Arsenic aside, rice is probably one of the best deals when you consider how long a bag can feed you.
Just about all of it.
Most farming gets subsidised. This is a good thing. You want excess in the system. You've seen what the free markets did to housing. You don't want that happening to food.
The slavery-in-all-but-name isn't such a good thing, but hey-ho.
Bananas happen to be very productive plants. One banana plant produces hundreds of bananas. The further lowering of the cost comes from economy of scale and fucking over workers and nature.
beef, corn, and almonds
beef takes up an incredible amount of land and water per 'unit' nutrition and has a profound impact on the local and global environment. it has an artificially low cost due to subsidies and cheap grain (corn) feed.
feed corn isnt really consumable by humans and takes a large percentage of land. its price is kept low by subsidies.
almonds take a lot of water to grow and are commonly grown in regions where water is scarce and is provided to farmers for little to no monetary cost with few restrictions
Pretty much all food. I can work for 5 minutes and buy 700 Calories’ worth of trail mix. My work consists of walking around a climate controlled room answering questions about things people are buying.
This means that with 15 minutes per day of effort, I get a diet more consistent than my ancestors could get with six hours of work per day.
Food is ridiculously cheap around me.
Dry beans. A $2 bag makes a massive pot.
But when you think about it, beans should be cheaper than meat or something. Yeah a bag makes a whole bunch of beans but it's straight ground to plate vs feeding a cow from birth. In fact relatively speaking of seems like the bean to cow cost ratio is out of proportion, the beans should be cheaper or the cow should be more.
Does water count? It's the first thing that always comes to mind for me. I'm certainly not complaining, but it amazes me that, no matter where you go, water, even clean water, is universally free. It's certainly not unlimited.
That does depend on where you are in the world. Even in North America, not everyone can just turn on a tap.
As well, it's generally our tax dollars that go to treating and supplying it. So we do pay for it.
That said, you're absolutely right. It's my favourite thing to drink, and it probably wouldn't be if I had to pay for every glass! Lol
Our tax dollars pay for it because a significant portion of the population is dead inside a week if the tap water stops or becomes unsafe. The government takes care of it because the populace can’t be trusted to take care of themselves lol
So as you said, it’s not free really, but there’s a really good reason for that
Access to clean drinking water should be a human right. Water shouldn’t cost anything. So it can never be too cheap.
Coffee and Chocolate for sure. Their prices rely really heavily on slavery or something so very near it you're splitting hairs by drawing a line.
To be fair, banana are only cheap in North America compared to the cost of other fruits. Bananas are pretty expensive if you consider you can get around 8-10 for a dollar in places where they are local.
Ramen always surprises me by how it remains consistently cheap
Yeah it's cheap, but I miss when it was $0.10/pack cheap, cheaper than dirt.
Always thought garlic bread is such a steal. Often you can get 2 (small) baguettes for less than £1 and G Bread is so good. When my plans of world domination come in, free garlic bread for everyone is first on the agenda.
I'm not sure if world domination usually comes with an election, but I'd vote for you!
Almost anything at Costco.
Rotisserie chickens
True! I've heard that those are about making customers hungry, or are used as loss-leaders. Their value to the business goes beyond the price!
imo I don't think there is any food item costs less than it should
edit: I'm speaking as a person who is broke and I buy microwave meals because I don't have time, money or energy to make/eat other stuff
I would argue that that's because you should be paid more money. That's why I'm not suggesting we should be paying more. Just kind of wondering what foods are "artificially" priced low due to exploitation of labour (etc).
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