Frugal Homesteading Blog

With gas at almost $140 a barrel, already-high food prices will continue to rise as the cost of transporting goods increases even more. Record gas prices will translate into record food prices, since virtually everything most Americans eat is shipped to them from far away. How can you combat high food prices and stagflation on a budget?

Sure, you can stock up on groceries and watch the sales for the best deals, but even the sales aren’t as low as they used to be.

You can try container gardening and keeping a few laying hens for eggs, but even this isn’t practical for many city dwellers, frequent travelers and those with shady yards.

The real solution is simple, in my opinion.

Eat local food. With the high cost of transportation, from trucking lines to cargo ships and transport trains, eating local produce and buying local foods has never looked so good.

I prefer to eat local foods simply from a nutritional stand point, since I like to find organic farmers nearby for the freshest, most healthful foods, but now it looks like it will make the most sense economically, too.

Check out EatWild.com and Local Harvest for food producer listings in your area. You can also get more leads through the Weston A. Price Foundation local chapter directory. Contact your local foundation chapter leader and get hooked up with natural food buying clubs and farmers close to you. Many farmers, especially Amish or small operations, don’t have websites and you might not otherwise know they’re doing business right near you.

Because local food is not shipped hundreds and even thousands of miles, the cost is often less than similar items in the grocery stores. I buy local grass-fed beef for $3.87 a pound (packaged price) by buying a side of beef at a time. You know you can’t get sirloin steak for those prices anywhere else. Did I mention the fillet mignon? Even lean organic hamburger at $3.87 a pound is hard to find.

What is grown in your region? Could you buy it through non-supermarket sources and save on money? Apples never dip below $0.99/ pound in the grocery stores. However, in-season apples cost me $0.69/ pound from the local orchard. Off-season, I pay $0.89/pound through a nearby co-op that stores locally grown apples through the winter.

What if local sources are still pricier than the grocery store? In some cases, you’ll pay more for local natural products than you will for commercial items in the store. For example, my friends sell pastured chicken to local customers for $3/ pound. While this seems high to those of us used to el-cheapo poultry from the stores, I do think it is worth every penny. Even if you disagree, you might want to buy local food anyway, and here’s why.

For local food sources to thrive, people need to support it now. If gas prices never go down and we’re stuck with high and higher prices for driving and shipping, transported food will rise drastically. If local food sources are not established now, they won’t be there to fall back on when rising grocery prices force families to live on tighter and tighter budgets.

Also consider the case of emergency scenarios, such as the Katrina disaster, or possible situations where transit were to halt. Communities with local food production and a network of local buying and selling would survive. Towns completely dependent on shipped food would not.

What’s your opinion? Should the frugal consumer find the cheapest food available, or buy from local producers? I’d love to hear your thoughts in my comments section, below.

P.S. For those looking for local food in Winchester, VA, or anywhere in Virgina, check out the Guide to Pick-Your-Own and Select-Your-Own Virginia Farm Products and the Virginia Apple Pick-Your-Own Guide.