Posted by Stacey Stultz on Dec.14, 2008

I recently overheard a conversation in my local grocery store’s produce department. A mom said, “Ha, look at that! Who can afford to double their food bill?” She was pointing to price signs for conventionally and organically grown apples. I know that some organic items are twice the price, but many other products are not. I decided to check out the price difference on a per meal basis for a family of four.

So, I bought ingredients for two meals: one conventional meal and one organic meal.

For baked chicken, stir fry squash and garlic mashed potatoes my store bought ingredients included the following:

2 small yellow squash
2 small zucchini squash
2 lbs potatoes
*Items on hand: ½ cup milk, 2tbsp butter, 1tbsp coconut oil and 1 head of garlic.

For dessert, I chose fruit kabobs with yogurt.

Ingredients:

½ pound strawberries
½ pound cherries
2 small cups of yogurt

 

So, this meal with conventionally produced foods would cost $16.46 as opposed to organically produced at $26.50. If you looked closely, you will see that my organic cherries actually cost LESS than my conventional cherries! You will also see that the cashier could not ring up the organic yellow squash and twice under charged me- I thanked her and offered to get the “real” price. The difference was $10.04 for this meal. The yellow squash and zucchini squash made up most of the cost difference. A frugal shopper can pull together organic meals at a much better price. Being frugal was not my goal this time- that is another article. However, a healthful, organic dinner and dessert for four with leftovers at $26.50 is a pretty good deal.

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Posted under Food, Nutrition & Recipes.