Food Prices Up, Humor Up…
It is nice to see gourmands making fun of themselves, as in this piece yesterday by Daniel Gross in Slate. (By the way, does anyone else constantly confuse him with Bill Gross of PIMCO?) Anyway, I think a lot of gourmands were getting a bit full of it over last decade or so; the new term “foodie” was even popularized during this time (more on the origins of the word).
So that’s why it was so great to see a funny piece on the price of food and how it will affect all those people who spend enormous amounts at places like Whole Foods for imported wine, cheese, seafood, and the rest of it. Gross says…”Alas, the cost of being precious about food has also never been greater.” I took particular note of this part of the article:
When you journey to a food-snob haven—be it the local farmer’s market, a wine store, or a Whole Foods—you’ve already decided that you’re going to pay far more for foodstuffs than you would at the Stop & Shop across the street.
Farmer’s markets are usually extolled as great places to go for cheap produce while helping your local economy, the environment, and your health to boot. But I had always had a hunch that prices were much higher there than at the grocery. I couldn’t say for sure since I haven’t gone to our local farmer’s market in years but was interested to read this, which seemingly justified my absence from the market.
