It's not easy being green.

We are so lucky to have our Farmer's Market which sells really low-cost organic foods, but sometimes I still get down.

Last week, I bought a $12 chicken (organic - $2.50/lb). Then I went to Costco and they are selling rotisserie chickens for $4. And you wouldn't even have to cook! They have grass fed organic beef at Costco, now. A "steal" at $4.50/lb for ground beef. But their 91% lean regular beef is $2.30/lb. I could have got pork loin for $1.99/lb. I can't even FIND "happy" pig anywhere but some local farmer's markets, and I learned too much from Michael Pollan to buy a lot of the regular stuff. I do buy bacon, but I can't swallow the $6/package for sulfite-free, so I still get the sulfite-laden bacon. Milk is $1.99/gal at Kroger, but $5.99+/gal for organic everywhere else.

And don't even get me started about the availability and price of food when we aren't at the peak of summer. I guess I'm more amazed at the price differential in industrial vs. local/organic* food, rather than the actual cost of organics. At least I can break things down by price per meal to help make it seem better. My $12 happy chicken created 6 meals + I've frozen the carcass for broth. At $2/serving we're rivaling McDonald's, right? Now that's a happy meal!

Sometimes it's not easy being green, but I think it's worth it.

* Sometimes the most annoying thing about organic food is that a lot of it still comes from the industrial food complex. That's why buying local is so important! I haven't committed too much to local, though I do try to choose the closer location when they have them listed in the grocery store.