food budget

[Oerdin]

There are some organic things which cost about the same but usually their shipped in from another continent (because labor and land prices are cheaper there) and so are less fresh and thus not even as good for you as traditionally grown local produce. On average though organic sells for about 20% more at least for organic produce. Meats and cheese can sell for much, much more.

Organic works on about the same principle as designer jeans. There are a few cosmetic differences (like a designer label or maybe the color) but most of the designer jeans are also made in sweet shops in China just like regular jeans. Hell, most of the time the thread count isn't even different or just marginally different but people routinely pay $200 for a pair of designer jeans when functionally identical jeans can be bought for $20. Hell, there are tons of designer knock off places which literally sell identical jeans without the designer label for $50 so literally the extra $150 is paid just to get the label. A fool and his money are soon parted.

[Oerdin]

Oh, another thing about the whole 100% grass fed thing. You will almost NEVER see 100% grass fed beef rated by the USDA because when they do get rated they tend to get the very poor rating of USDA select (the lowest rating most butchers or supermarkets are willing to carry) instead of the higher choice or highest prime rating. The reason is because the main difference between select, choice, or prime ratings is the amount of marbling in the meat. A small but we placed amount of marbling is extremely important to have in a steak because it makes the steak juicy and prevents the meat from drying out or toughening while it cooks. Marbling is literally THE difference between the highest rated beef and lower quality beef but grass fed cows tend to not have a decent amount of marbling because there just isn't enough calories in regular grass.

It's pretty telling that most of the high end beef producers have gotten in to the grass fed marketing gimmick because they can use it to get a higher price but most of them will still give the cow 2-3 weeks on a fed lot to fatten them up on grain prior to slaughter. This is to give the meat that all important marbling which separates prime beef from lesser cuts. Beef like that is normally marketed as "grass fed, grain finished" meaning that most of the cow's life was spent eating grass but they were finished on grain just prior to slaughter. Brands like Brandt beef are high end local producers which make grass fed, grain finished beef. I've eaten both Brandt beef and Mindenhall beef (which is 100% grass fed) and I must say the Brandt steaks are much better simply because they have the marbling and so are much juicier steaks; 100% grass fed steaks like Mindenhall are pretty dry steaks because they just don't have enough fat marbling in them.