Its hard to consider the prices of organic foods. Its about $7-10 for a pound of organic, fair-trade coffee, around here. That's tragic when you consider you can get the "other stuff" for no more than $3-6, and often lower. Organics are sometimes 2-3 times more expensive.
You know the benefits of organics--less pesticides and hormones into your body and into the environment (due to the farming practices) and better treatment of workers, just to start things off. But how do you afford it?
Well, in the case of coffee, you are looking at about a $3-6 difference for a full pound of coffee. Sit back and think what you could have done with all that extra cash.
Folks, that's one trip to Starbucks! Maybe two, depending on your tastes. Lately, I've been tearing through coffee, but it still takes me about a month to go through a pound of coffee. Cutting out an extra trip to the coffee shop or taking that extra 5 minutes to brew my own cup instead of stopping on the way to work is all the difference in the world.
Someone who brews their own organic coffee regularly can actually have a much cheaper coffee budget than someone who drinks non-organic but mismanages their time and is always running to the local gas station or Starbucks!
I'm all for coffee shops as a social gathering place or to taste some new flavors. I got through my course in Eschatology on gallons of Panera coffee. But if you really want to go organic but are wondering where you are going to find the money, you may have more available than you otherwise thought. Its money you are already spending on coffee, just a sacrifice of "a cup a month" at a coffee shop can actually make up for all the price difference!
Or you could give up caffiene all together- just saying.....
ReplyDeleteThat could save you $3-$10.... :-)
That's just wrong. =)
ReplyDeleteOh, the humanity!
ReplyDeleteI got through 2001 on gallons of Panera's hazelnut coffee...
ReplyDeleteI used to go to Arabica every day before work last year... until I wised up to buying my own coffee... I've been getting this kind called Scenic River at Buehler's. Dont know that it's organic, though. But I do buy this organic one they sell in my church basement that follows fair trade rules... or so they say..
Dear Frank,
ReplyDeleteYour wisdom by far exceeds your years. If only the rest of the country/world were willing to make some small changes that could have big benefits for our bodies and our planet. People just want convienience and cheapness. I call it the Wal-mart effect. You buy so cheap that you expect to get poor quality. But you know you can always replace it with more cheap products.
I spend about $2 almost every morning for an Au Lait at my local roaster (fair trade, organic). I bring my own cup, and my son loves to walk around the coffee shop and watch the roaster, although it is about $10 a week, it's a cheap outing for us. Even if I make coffee at home, we still end up going out for some, it's the coffee shop experience we enjoy just as much as the coffee.
ReplyDelete