Weird ruminations about bread:
Weird ruminations about bread:
So, the other day I went to this bakery that makes really good, mostly older or more European style breads to pick up a loaf of something to try. It's about 30 minutes away.
Anyway, I've had some of their other stuff and it's quite good. However, it's pricey. Except I was thinking about this. While it may or may not be more nutritionally valuable than buying something at the grocery store bakery, it's definitely more expensive and less convenient. Thing is, it's a small business, it's relatively local, and they do try to cooperatively support other local or regional businesses, like where they get their grains and such.
And if you think about how much it probably ought to cost for a loaf of bread, accounting for if you get grain from a family farm, and so on all the way up the chain, and the baker makes bread in older ways that take more time (like up to 2 days for some types), and you don't get any of the economies of scale huge factory produced resources provide, starting with big, industrial farms, and commercially sourced flour, and shortcut baking methods that get you bread in half a day, and also there's the huge volume at a grocery store - I mean, there's some mark-up on the bread as a premium product, but you pay $4-6/loaf of the better fresh baked bread at the grocery store, anyway.
This bread costs $7-8/loaf. It could probably go for $6-7. But it's funny how paying $5/loaf doesn't phase you, but $7/loaf does.
Also, I don't think we have any idea what it really costs to produce food anymore. We're completely spoiled and I am not sure that's a good thing. Like it's a great thing that people want food pantries to carry healthier food, but it costs a huge amount more, and you feed fewer people for the same money. It's not like there's no food value in processed foods. Plus, they keep longer without the expense of refrigeration.
Like, if you start thinking about what it really means to someone who is poor in terms of cost of food to just survive, are they really going to care if they might get diabetes? And how do you balance the cost of that medical care with the cost of better food that might have prevented that? And why is it ok to regulate what people eat just because they are poor?
Bread is a basic staple food. If you're poor in this country, you can't afford it. Unless you buy some 2 lb. loaf of mass produced, highly processed white bread for $1-2 at Walmart, or something. Society is so messed up.
#lesmiserables
#csbp
So, the other day I went to this bakery that makes really good, mostly older or more European style breads to pick up a loaf of something to try. It's about 30 minutes away.
Anyway, I've had some of their other stuff and it's quite good. However, it's pricey. Except I was thinking about this. While it may or may not be more nutritionally valuable than buying something at the grocery store bakery, it's definitely more expensive and less convenient. Thing is, it's a small business, it's relatively local, and they do try to cooperatively support other local or regional businesses, like where they get their grains and such.
And if you think about how much it probably ought to cost for a loaf of bread, accounting for if you get grain from a family farm, and so on all the way up the chain, and the baker makes bread in older ways that take more time (like up to 2 days for some types), and you don't get any of the economies of scale huge factory produced resources provide, starting with big, industrial farms, and commercially sourced flour, and shortcut baking methods that get you bread in half a day, and also there's the huge volume at a grocery store - I mean, there's some mark-up on the bread as a premium product, but you pay $4-6/loaf of the better fresh baked bread at the grocery store, anyway.
This bread costs $7-8/loaf. It could probably go for $6-7. But it's funny how paying $5/loaf doesn't phase you, but $7/loaf does.
Also, I don't think we have any idea what it really costs to produce food anymore. We're completely spoiled and I am not sure that's a good thing. Like it's a great thing that people want food pantries to carry healthier food, but it costs a huge amount more, and you feed fewer people for the same money. It's not like there's no food value in processed foods. Plus, they keep longer without the expense of refrigeration.
Like, if you start thinking about what it really means to someone who is poor in terms of cost of food to just survive, are they really going to care if they might get diabetes? And how do you balance the cost of that medical care with the cost of better food that might have prevented that? And why is it ok to regulate what people eat just because they are poor?
Bread is a basic staple food. If you're poor in this country, you can't afford it. Unless you buy some 2 lb. loaf of mass produced, highly processed white bread for $1-2 at Walmart, or something. Society is so messed up.
#lesmiserables
#csbp
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