Farmer's markets are easily affordable to people on modest incomes...if you eat seasonally. I realize that's something your average entitled American doesn't want to do, but it is possible. And BTW, those purple carrots are delicious.

And yeah, the meat is a lot more expensive, but most Americans should be eating less meat anyway. Similar to your old saying on marijuana: "buy better pot and smoke less of it", buy better meat and eat less of it.

Hey, way to take a page from the 1%’s playbook on social manipulation and peg our own farms and our own grocery stores as bougie. No, we do not have to accept supermarket behemoths and multinational corporations as the only cost-effective alternatives. I can’t believe this article came after a bunch of shit about buying local.

There aren’t many, “easy steps,” for shopping consciously on a budget in this story—probably because there aren’t many within these parameters. Most of it is convoluted information about how tricky it actually is. Maybe that’s the point of the article and it just went over my head. If so, forgive the following rant.

FUUUCCCKKKK Trader Joe’s. Seriously. It’s a greenwashing, farmworker-hating company owned by the 31st richest person in the WORLD. God, when I hear white people get all excited about shopping at, “TJ’s,” I want to fucking vomit. Fuck their stupid cheese and their shitty hummus.

You really want to save money? Get an EBT card, use it at the farmer’s market (http://www.seattlefarmersmarkets.org/mar…) or at the co-op. Purple carrots are totes covered by food stamps, by the way.

Stop relying on processed foods, and buy in-season fruits and vegetables (which is easy to do at these places) and bulk ingredients. Cut back on meat and cheese because they’re hella expensive and, according to science, bad for you anyway (http://www.ajcn.org/content/78/3/502S.fu…).

If you can’t afford all organic produce, then heed the Dirty Dozen: http://www.organic.org/articles/showarti…

Buy your TP anywhere you want, even TJ’s, I don’t give a fuck. But god damn it, if you do anything, support your local economy—keep money circulating in our area instead of flying out to the 1% so that we can continue creating our own careers and meeting our own needs.

Want to participate in the food system as more than just a consumer? Learn about the U.S. Farm Bill and become an advocate for creating a food system that doesn’t work against us. http://www.nwfoodfight.org/

Thanks.

Oh wait, one more thing, because I think it’s a parallel narrative: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinio…

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that article seemed out of place.

I really don't know how it works in other cities, but I live in the north part of the Atlanta sprawl and I keep a very close eye on what I pay for my food, and I get most of my best deals at Dekalb Farmer's Market. I never buy vegetables, spices, flavourings, rice, coffee, fish or booze anywhere else any more. It's not just the cheapest place I've ever bought produce, it's also the best. I go other places for meat, dairy, pasta, and other staples - but my experience is that going to the farmer's market means saving a whole hell of a lot of money, not wasting it. Maybe that's not how it goes in other cities, but I'm happy.

Why not mention the locally owned grocery stores in Seattle? Central Coop, which is very committed to the practices you described here and is owned by the community, doesn't get a a mention? It's five blocks from your office! Trader Joe's is six.

Instead you plug two massive multinational grocery chains? Pretty lame.