Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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That's not enough folks, not nearly enough. Food is not coming back down; 
it's going to keep going up.


As food costs soar, it's back to basics for meal planners
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-07-food-prices_N.htm

By Nanci Hellmich, USA TODAY
Rebecca Woods and her family in Lathrop, Mo., have turned to the land, 
planting hundreds of vegetables and relying on their own chickens for eggs.

Retirees Sally and Robert Jones of Alpine, Texas, have reverted back to some 
of the menus that got them through graduate school many years ago, living on 
beans, stews and soups.

Dave Snyder of Mobile, Ala., goes to four grocery stores in search of 
bargains. Nancy Sierra of Fort Myers, Fla., now eats peanut butter and jelly 
sandwiches for lunch. And Tiffany Nicosia of Charlotte says that, more and 
more, she whips up new recipes with whatever is left in her refrigerator.

They are just a few examples of how Americans are changing their meal 
planning as food prices continue to climb.

When USA TODAY asked readers to report how they are coping with higher 
grocery bills while still eating healthfully, dozens of people responded with 
lists of ways they're cutting costs. Their ideas range from curtailing 
restaurant meals to planting gardens, using coupons, shopping smarter and 
cooking more economical meals.

Is all this necessary? Government statistics say yes.

Overall, food prices climbed 4% in 2007, the biggest annual increase since 
1990, and prices are projected to rise 4.5% to 5.5% this year, according to 
the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll of 1,016 adults, 46% said the higher cost 
of food is creating a financial hardship. They said they have noticed an 
increase in the cost of milk, fruits and vegetables, meat, bread and eggs.

"The biggest problem is the food prices are not going to go back down," says 
Phil Lempert, one of the nation's top trackers of supermarket trends 
(supermarketguru.com). "Traditionally, we've seen an increase, and it comes 
back down as the commodities come back down," he says. "I don't think we are 
going to see that."

Often when food prices increase, the first items that grocery shoppers leave 
out of their carts are the healthful foods — fruits, vegetables, fish and 
lean meats, says Adam Drewnoski, director of the Center for Public Health 
Nutrition at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Instead, they buy more calorie-dense foods loaded with sugar or fat, such as 
sweetened cereals, packaged macaroni and cheese, and noodles to fill hungry 
stomachs, he says.

It doesn't have to be that way, Drewnoski says.

People can use these difficult times to their nutritional advantage by buying 
locally grown produce, growing some of their own food or brushing up on their 
cooking skills, he says.

"It takes three things to be well nourished: knowledge, money and time," 
Drewnoski says.

"If you have three out of three, you have no problem. If you have two out of 
three, you can manage. So if money drops out, you can use your knowledge and 
time to find and cook affordable, nutrient-rich food. If you have no time, 
then knowledge and money will tide you over. You can buy (nutritious) takeout.

"The problem is when you are zero for three, you are a recession basket 
case," Drewnoski says.

"It becomes a difficult situation, and I sympathize."

'We were sinking financially'

Several USA TODAY readers said that for years, they dashed through the 
grocery store, blithely grabbing whatever they needed, and didn't realize how 
high the prices had gotten until they took a hard look at their budget.

That was the case for Rebecca Woods, 50, a children's book author, who lives 
on 3 acres in Lathrop, Mo.

During the past year, the grocery bill for her family of five, including two 
teen boys and a college-age daughter, doubled from $800 to $1,600 a month.

When she figured that out, she says, "I about choked."

"We were eating whatever we wanted — yogurt, bagels, name-brand cereals. I 
wasn't looking at the price of anything. I was at the point where I bought 
the same thing every week. I ran into the grocery, I bought what I needed and 
ran out."

But, she says, "I realized we were sinking financially and couldn't go on 
that way."

The family decided to economize on dining out, food and gas. They cut back on 
eating out from a couple of times a week to about once a month. They've also 
consolidated their trips to the grocery store in Liberty, Mo., which is 23 
miles from their home, Woods says.

"Now we call the list in to our daughter, who works in town, and she gets the 
groceries before she comes home."

This spring, they took their gardening to new heights, planting 235 potato 
plants, more than 1,000 stalks of sweet corn — each with a pea or bean plant 
as a companion to climb the stalks — and dozens of winter squash, tomatoes, 
peppers and carrots.

They also have a small orchard with nine fruit trees — pear, apricot, apple, 
plum and peach.

Woods' family plans to can and freeze some of the produce and share the rest 
with neighbors and friends.

The family also keeps a cow for milking and several chickens, which produce 
about two eggs every day.

"In short, many of our habits are changing dramatically, and we are prepared 
to change them further if or when the times get worse," Woods says.

"It's very satisfying that we can take control of this portion of our lives 
without making any dramatic sacrifice."

A challenge for retirees

Retirees are hit particularly hard by higher food prices, and many have been 
forced to find ways to economize.

Sally Jones, 69, of Alpine, Texas, steers clear of processed foods and shops 
the perimeter of the grocery store.

"I'm buying the most reasonably priced fruit and am now making my own salad 
dressings, which is much healthier," Jones says.

"We're cutting back on portion sizes as well — something my husband and I 
both need to do anyway."

But Jones says she misses the times when she could buy whatever she wanted.

"The grocery store was one place where I could sort of throw all caution to 
the wind, but no more. I haven't been able to shop as luxuriously as I used 
to … as (prices) have slowly crept up."

Dave Snyder, 64, a retiree in Mobile, Ala., has a circular route that takes 
him to four grocery stores. He scouts out the specials and often buys meat 
that has been reduced for quick sale.

"You have got to get there early, and you have to learn to vary your diet 
based on what's on special," Snyder says.

He's wary of coupons. "I find that coupons are an encouragement to impulse 
buying — a real budget killer," Snyder says.

He and his wife, Beth, 62, are both good cooks, so they rarely dine out. But 
when they do, they order water with their meal, bypass appetizers and split 
an entree and dessert.

"We are not cheap, and I still give a 20% tip to our server, if he or she has 
earned it," Snyder says.

Nancy Sierra, 61, a behavior analyst for a school district in Fort Myers, 
Fla., says she has learned to skimp on meals.

For lunch, she and her husband often eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 
carrots and bananas. Her cost-cutting evening meals: a can of fat-free 
ravioli, egg salad sandwiches or a baked potato.

"I like meat, but it's too expensive," she says, adding that sometimes she 
buys chicken breasts if there's a buy-one-get-one-free sale.

She has cut out salads and other expensive vegetables in favor of canned 
vegetables. She says she looks for sales in the produce department more than 
any other place.

"If something is on sale, we get it, and if it's not, we don't. I don't waste 
a thing. We eat all our leftovers. Now that gas is taking up a lot of money, 
I've had to cut down in other places. I think it will continue to go up, and 
it'll affect everything.

"I guess we'll be eating dog food next."

Many younger people have also made changes in the way they eat as a result of 
the higher prices.

Tiffany Nicosia, 28, of Charlotte, used to go out to lunch or dinner several 
times a week with friends, buy whatever she wanted at the grocery store and 
drive her gas-guzzling SUV to work.

No more.

Eating out is now an occasional treat, and when she goes to the grocery 
store, she shops sales, uses coupons and buys in bulk, repackaging the food 
into smaller containers when she gets home.

She frequently goes to farmers' markets in downtown Charlotte to buy produce.

"The other day I got four kiwis, two apples, one pound of green beans, a 
bunch of red potatoes and three oranges for $4. It's easy to eat healthy if 
you get creative with it," she says.

She makes new dishes out of whatever she has left over in the refrigerator. 
For instance, if she has chicken, celery and a few spices, she searches for a 
recipe on the Internet that uses those ingredients.

"A lot of things turn out kind of funky, but a lot of them turn out well," 
she says.

As a result of her efforts, she has trimmed her dining-out budget from more 
than $100 a week to less than $30, has cut her weekly grocery bill from about 
$80 to $45, and spends $12 a week to take the bus to work instead of $85 to 
drive and park.

Nicosia says that eating out less and cooking more with fresh ingredients has 
not only trimmed her budget but also her waistline. During the past year, she 
lost 42 pounds.

"You have to do what you've got to do," she says. "You want to get more bang 
for your buck, so you have to be creative about it. I don't want to waste 
money."

More planning, fewer frills

For some people, the higher food prices coincided with other life events that 
made them rethink their budget.

That was the case for Randy Vance, 52, and his wife, Linda, 50, of Winter 
Park, Fla. He is editor in chief of Boating Life magazine. She worked for a 
wine supplier, but the company was bought out, and in March she took a 
severance package.

Linda, a gourmet cook, used to stop at the grocery every few days and buy 
whatever she needed to prepare elegant meals for her husband and their 
13-year-old daughter, Amy.

A typical dinner might be grilled chicken and goat cheese with a balsamic 
glaze, mushroom risotto and cooked baby carrots. Linda also relied on takeout 
food or partly prepared meals.

But those items were costly. She says she studied the total family budget and 
found the amount she spent each month on food was "shocking": $1,100 for 
groceries alone.

After doing an e-mail survey of a few friends and family members, Linda 
realized that in order to cut food costs, she had to dramatically change the 
way she planned meals, cooked and shopped.

She started to do menu planning for two weeks at a time and began shopping 
for less expensive cuts of meat (brisket, hamburger) and bulk items at 
discount clubs and other grocery stores.

Instead of buying packaged instant oatmeal or fancy rice pilafs, she now gets 
those foods in bulk and packages them in small plastic bags. She also buys 
fresh vegetables in bulk, and to make sure that none of the produce goes to 
waste, she roasts the vegetables right away and stores them in the 
refrigerator.

She makes simpler dinner fare for her family, such as Salisbury steak and 
hamburger casseroles.

Linda says she has cut their food bill in half.

"My refrigerator has half the foods in it that it used to have. The challenge 
is, can I go two weeks without going back to the grocery store? It takes 
practice."

But, she adds, "It's fun to beat the system and buy in bulk and still eat 
healthy food."