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Yikes! Write an article questioning high prices at farmers markets and the foodies show up with their knives out. I’ve received dozens of emails and tweets about my essay in the Atlantic: How $8-a-Dozen-Eggs-Threaten-Food Reform. Some were supportive. Some were from very angry folks, furious that I would dare criticize farmers for charging what it costs to produce real, good food.
Of course, had they read closely, they would have seen that isn’t what I said at all. My point: that the “good-food-costs-more” argument is being taken to an extreme that puts at risk the goal of a mass food-reform movement, which is to make good food available to the greatest number of people possible.
The article references Grazin’ Angus Acres, a farm that sells at my local Brooklyn market. As I recount in the essay:
My first instinct was that the egg guy was gouging people, like me, who have enthusiastically embraced efforts to build an alternative to our industrial food system. But it turns out that’s what it costs him to produce his eggs. The farm, Grazin’ Angus Acres, follows the gold standard of environmental practices: each morning, the chickens are fed organic grain, then moved to fresh pasture in a specially made chicken mobile. Owner Dan Gibson says the process is so labor-intensive that bringing down the price would be near impossible—and he’s not interested in trying. “At eight dollars a dozen, you pay 67 cents an egg,” he told me. “If your priorities are in the right place, that’s a bargain.”
Gibson has a point. But that argument, no matter how valid, won’t be so persuasive to many people for whom convenience and cost reign supreme. At a market in Huntington, West Virginia—where my husband and I recently spent six months researching a book on efforts in that community to build a healthier food culture—I saw an elderly man scoff at a bargain bin of tomatoes priced at five for one dollar. “I’m going to [discount grocer] Aldi,” he sniffed.
I go on to praise Grazin’ Acres for its respect for the land and good food. But I also call for a focus on ways to bring the prices of that food down.
There is no magic bullet for producing good food at low prices. The solutions lie in the aspects of food-system reform that aren’t as sexy and status-conscious as eight-dollar-a-dozen eggs, which tend to hog all the media attention. Things such as promoting food hubs, which aggregate small famers’ crops and distribute them to grocery stores, hospitals, and schools; creating coops so that small farmers can supplies at the same discounts the big guys get; and supporting the baby steps forward that companies such as Walmart and McDonald’s are making.
That shouldn’t be controversial. But foodies (yeah, I hate that word too) appear to be taking a defensive stance. Any suggestion that good food could be convenient ruffles feathers. The message: Anyone who doesn’t get that food should be a top priority — in terms of money and time — just doesn’t get it. Well, a lot of people don’t get it. And I still want them to support farmers that are good stewards of the land and eat healthfully. The goal of food reform should be to make it easy and affordable for everyone to eat well.
Do you agree?
I am a Brooklyn-based food writer who covers food politics, trends and sustainability issues. My work appears in the Washington Post, (where I was a staff writer), the New York Times, Slate, New York magazine and other publications. On this site, you will find my blog and links to my written work and my podcast, 
9 Comments
I found this entry (and thus the Atlantic article) via Mark Bittman’s twitter feed, and I wanted to comment in support of what you’re saying.
I am fairly new to the food reform movement, as it were. I don’t, personally, have a problem paying higher – sometimes much higher – prices for good food.
Rather, I don’t have a problem now that I have the income for it.
When I was unemployed, I didn’t have the income. When I was a single grad student, I didn’t have the income. I was interested, and I bought what I could from various farmers markets. But meat, dairy & eggs were not “what I could”.
Most of my family still doesn’t have the income. And they don’t place the priority on food that I do. There’s no way to bring them around on “this food is better, and thus worth more” if the gap is so huge.
I could write about this for ages, and it would mostly be a rambling mess, so I’ll leave it for now with the following:
I believe a two-tier system which segregates people into “haves” and “have-nots” is a step backwards in all ways when it comes to food.
“Cheap” animal products are problematic because any time you scrimp on welfare issue, be it due to wanting more profit or to just bring prices down for consumers such as yourself, the animals suffer. “Cheap” = cruel. That’s just how it work when you commodify animals and their bodily products.
Here’s a thought. Why not just *not* eat eggs if the ones that fit your ethics are too pricey? And that goes for all animal products. If the ones you feel ethically okay with are outside your budget the answer isn’t to replace them with cheaper, more cruel versions. The answer is to do without and spare the animals some really unnecessary misery. We don’t die without eggs, milk, cheese and flesh. Myself and many other vegans can attest to that.
If the “good stuff” is too expensive, eat less.
The only way that farmer could get his prices down would involve something where the hens suffer more. You okay with that? I’m not.
The only options on the market (if we’re still living in a non-vegan world, which I think is highly probably) should be the absolutely most welfare sensitive. They’d be pricey, out of necessity, which would cause folks to buy less. Eating less animal protein is good for the environment, good for our health and good for the animals. Stop subsidizing animal products and junk, gov’t, and start subsidizing the REAL good stuff – produce, whole grains, unprocessed plant foods. Let’s make it so a pound of apples isn’t outrageously more expensive than a pound of factory farmed, -cide laden turkey flesh. That’s a good start.
http://vegan.com/blog/2011/08/10/what-should-a-dozen-eggs-cost/
Love this article and what you are trying to hi-light here.
At the risk of being attacked by every animal activist on the planet, I say this: not everyone cares about animal rights. I’m sorry to say it but it’s true. A lot more people care that their food sources, whether they be animal or plant based, not be tainted by various chemicals and scientific processes. It seems unfair that one must pay more for food that is “untouched”.
Not every argument about food should turn to animal rights etc. Sometimes it is simply about how do I feed my FAMILY good food that won’t cause them harm at prices that I can AFFORD.
I read the original article. The farmer at Grazin’ Acres actually puts his chickens on a “chicken mobile” and drives them to pasture! That is NOT something that has to be done. No wonder his eggs cost $8 a dozen! What’s next, a professional pedicure for each chicken??? A massage?? I grew up on a farm. We did it this way:
chicken house with large-ish fenced chicken yard
door with ramp
chickens
Feed chickens some grain in the morning, let them run in and out as they pleased, and eat bugs, etc. that they found in the chicken yard. Certain types of food scraps (raw and vegetarian) from our garden or cooking prep were tossed in as well, and they ate that.
retrieve lovely golden-yolked, humanely raised (cheap) eggs daily
eat chickens when the time comes (yes, we killed them and put them in the freezer – at least they were organic!!)
I have to feed my family. I would rather not live on beans and rice only – eggs, meat, milk and fruit are nice additions. I’ll build a chicken coop in my back yard before I’ll pay $8 a dozen for eggs.
I also really don’t find it helpful when people tell me that it’s better to abstain from eating eggs unless I can afford the ones from coddled chickens, or that I should just prioritize my spending. I’ve already prioritized my spending! Housing, electricity, water, food, gas for the car so I can go to work, clothes for the kids. If there’s something left over at the end of the month it’s a minor miracle. Organic foods are just not in the budget.
Just for the record, I buy my eggs from a friend who has backyard chickens, and I pay more than Wal-Mart but less than organic free range in the grocery store.
If this is a taste of what it’s going to be like to have “good food” instead of “factory farmed” food, then a lot of people will simply starve. I might be one of them. If the message is that only organic is good enough, then you will alienate a lot of folks who can’t afford organic all the time – or even part of the time. People get tired of being told that it’s better not to eat vegetables than to eat conventional. That simply isn’t true and shouldn’t be the message.
We absolutely do need to find a way to make eating well affordable for everyone, and I think that part of the solution is understanding that the choice isn’t all or nothing. There is a middle ground, somewhere between debeaking and driving the chickens to fresh pasture every morning.
Thanks for this thoughtful note. I, obviously, couldn’t agree more. I’m so glad that everyone is weighing in. Means a lot!
Jane, I’m so happy to see this story and all the ones you’re writing looking at all sides of local-food movement. I wrote “Farm Fresh North Carolina” and have been interviewed a lot about local food, farmers’ markets, etc. Some people in the movement get really annoyed when I say that I think a good deal of the public interest in all things local is a trend and will backslide. I also agree that, despite what critics say, the movement is not reaching the true masses. You lived with the masses and you know. I thought the piece on Harvest Table was brilliant and the perfect example of that. I’m thrilled you’re out there writing these stories! (Leave it to a journalist, I say! I used to work with Yonan at the Globe.)
The reason foodies are eating each other and their young (ideas) is because, as with most cultural justice movements, we’re losing the war. In a game where all the resources, decision-making and public visibility is on one side, there is no real chance in culinary hell of balancing out this particular teeter-totter of opportunities. The fast and bad food sectors are winning because they nickel and dime us to their side and thus can do as they will – which sometimes does indeed taste good, so we all love driving buy (no typo) their menus. That’s why I developed the Burgers Against Obesity idea, which is viewable at http://www.nickelameal.wordpress.com. But there are other empowering ways too. When I’m doing less than I should be doing on that project I’m also starting a global adventure in mining for Green Gold, which is a planetary adventure in pairing the world of honeys and cheeses. Doing this also gives a voice to smaller producers who will gain the economies of collaboration to weigh down in a good way their own scales of justice. (htt://www.honeycheeseguys.wordpress.com) Good writing all of you folks.
I think part of the issue was your sensationalist title, that somehow charging a fair price for a dozen eggs undermines reforming the food system. Yes you praise the farmer and his practices, but call essentially tell him he is wrong by that title.
I don’t think the only goal of reforming the food system is to make good food ‘easy’ and ‘affordable’ for all. There are many other important goals that must be met simultaneously, or you will end up with an even more skewed food system in which the farmers and their workers have less power in the equation. The food system needs to protect our natural resources, dare say restore them. It needs to more fairly remunerate different workers along the food chain. It needs to reduce food miles and greenhouse gasses. It needs to support more farming families across the country, not just a handful of monopolies.
I am not exactly sure what your solutions are, but I would love to see you take a stab at them instead of pointing fingers at the farmers, the ‘foodies’, the govt., etc. Thanks!
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