Blaming farmers markets for being overpriced is a little crazy IMO. Do people realize farmers are often living in poverty, as well? That they normally have to work two full-time jobs to make ends meet (farming plus another job)? And a spell of bad weather and/or disease (like light blight on tomatoes in the northeast) can make that their farming net zero, or negative income?

It’s because food is actually very underpriced, even when they are selling direct (to say nothing of when they are not)? The only answer I can think of goes to subsidies (redirecting them). And middle and upper-class people who can afford organic, local veggies should do so, instead of spending on entertainment and vacations–that’s certainly what I did when I got “rich” (from under 10K to over 20K). All my income goes to food and rent (it used to go to rent, and food). Of course, if you can’t, you can’t–no reason for guilt.

Err, I don’t know what farmer’s market you go to Amanda, but I’ve never been to one where I could afford more than a cabbage. And the last farmers mkt cabbage I bought cost 3.00/lb.

Having access to a car, sufficient storage space and containers, and a bulk store (Sam’s, etc) helps save money. So does having the capital to drop a hundred or two at a time on bulk trips.

I am curious about what farmer’s market everyone else is going to. This must clearly vary by city. I live in Minneapolis, MN, and there are 2 major farmer’s markets (that I know of) that are directly located right on the major bus lines in the heart of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. There are, of course, several others, in wealthier areas.

I spent $16 at the market yesterday and could hardly fit everything in my refrigerator. I had 8 shopping bags of fresh produce. It’s insanely inexpensive. I do not drive with any kind of regularity and don’t even own a car (my boyfriend has one that I’ll use maybe once a week to go see my mom or something). I do not drive to the farmer’s market, I bus or walk. In fact, driving there would be incredibly inconvenient.

On the other hand, because this is Minnesota, the markets are only open from May-November, which is too bad.

I don’t know what Minneapolis does differently to allow prices to be so low. I wonder why costs of farmer’s market goods are so high elsewhere.

That all makes it a lot easier for me to talk a good game about how farm subsidies enable the corn production that produces the 99-cent value meal with a nutritional value approaching nil, but when it comes to what to do about it, the only thing I can think to say is that a hearty bean stew is really cheap and easy to make.

One thing that always irks me when farm subsidies are paired with poor diet is how often food advocates denouncing the subsidies in the U.S. Farm Bill fail to mention that this is the very same bill that allocates funding and sets guidelines for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). That is, FNS programs like the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly “Food Stamps”), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs (FMNP) and the like are all funded under (or, rather, underfunded by) the Farm Bill.

As you point out, it doesn’t do much to change the system if you just say “a hearty bean stew is really cheap and easy to make” when people lack access to affordable foods. However, if we’re talking about the Farm Bill anyway, we should also be talking about expanding, strengthening and increasing the accessibility of these important anti-hunger programs, which provide cash assistance to poor and hungry people as a significant step in addressing class inequity.

Even if food writers weren’t already talking about the Farm Bill they should be talking about improving these programs. I’m just shocked that so many of these high-profile writes on food politics don’t even touch the issue of anti-hunger programs, especially when they otherwise have so much to say about the evils of so-called “welfare” in the form of farm subsidies.

Having access to a car, sufficient storage space and containers, and a bulk store (Sam’s, etc) helps save money. So does having the capital to drop a hundred or two at a time on bulk trips.

You run into this problem with a lot of other areas in poverty. Yeah, cooking saves a ton money over eating out–but to save that money you need a certain amount of capital in the first place.

But like others have said, there’s a huge class element here. It’s really not as simple as you’re making out; getting those beans and kale, for me, means taking public transport halfway across the city to get to the farmers market, since the supermarket produce in my (borderline working-class) area is ratshit. I don’t often have the energy for that, since I live with a disability that makes it hard to get out of the house quite often. I don’t have a garden to develop, so that one’s out too, and there ain’t no community garden anywhere round here. These things are just not that simple.

It’s the same sort of attitude in the hunger challenge that someone linked above – while I’m sure that makes people feel all down with the poor people and stuff, $4/day, for a WEEK? That’s not terribly uncommon for me; I’ve had to live of less often enough, and the thing is, I’m not particularly poor in the scheme of things.

I realise I should expect a terminal lack of clue from Amanda by now, but y’know, the reason farmers markets and such aren’t always an option is not just because poor folks are too lazy/uneducated to go there, comprehende? No one’s suggesting that you should purposefully buy un-organic food for the hipster points, but that rather, if you’re advocating buying it as a solution, it might help to include actual poor folks in your analysis?

I think it’d be really interesting to have a discussion about balancing making purchases that are ecologically sound and don’t involve screwing over farmworkers, while at the same time being actually manageable for the poor; discussing the organising that’s happening in that area (some of which has been loosely referred to here) and how best to push that forward.

But I’m not sure this discussion is particularly helpful in that regard.

I had the exact same observation at my local Cub Foods (same idea as Kroger, Safeway, SuperValu, etc.). The one I went to a couple months ago, a mostly middle class area, had all kinds of produce (always good quality, lasted a while), and the produce section was huge. In fact, my boyfriend and I went there one night and randomly chose 5 different kinds of peppers that we’d never heard of, just for fun.

At the Cub in the neighborhood I live in now, which is predominantly black and poor, I can’t find yellow squash, the entire produce section is pathetically small, and the produce does last about half the time as the produce at the other Cub. You’d be lucky to even find 5 different kinds of peppers, let alone 5 that you’d never heard of.

Speaking of that, one thing that stuck out to me in the OP was:

the high costs of fruits and vegetables compared with soda and chips, to name two of the most obvious—

I’m not sure how accurate that is. At any grocery store I’ve shopped at, I can load up on an insane amount of fresh produce and beans and rice for cheap. A bad of chips is $3 or $4 for more than a single-serving, and soda is like, at least $4 for a 12-pack, if there aren’t coupons circulating.

2) Not to mention pantry staples, like cooking oil, sugar and flour, and especially spices. It’s easy to forget about them in your daily or weekly budget, since you don’t buy new pepper or curry powder every week. But again, it still costs money, and if you’re trying to make the transition from eating out/eating prepared foods to cooking everything, you will have to make that initial investment.

3) TIME. I know there are all kinds of tips and tricks and good recipes for “quick homemade meals,” but even a relatively low-labor recipe like a slow-cooking stew still takes more time and effort than microwaving a can of soup or picking up some McDonald’s. So the time thing, too. And of course the labor burden still tends to fall more often on women, so this gets to be a gendered issue as well as a class issue…

(I know these are common topics of conversation, too, so you all probably know this already. But we shouldn’t forget it!)