Sunday, February 26, 2012

What's your Beef with eating local?

I get an email from a local farm that delivers their meat straight from the farm to your home once a month.  While I try to buy Amana steaks, I check the labels of the pork to make sure they're from Iowa (we have the best) and I refuse to buy South American grown fish... I have yet to take part in this door to door service. 

It's incredibly convenient and you get to shake the hand of the farmer who raised the cow and probably named it... (although I've heard you're not supposed to name them... you get too attached.)
But how does the cost of the true blue Iowa locally grown beef stack up against the supermarket deal-of-the-day? 

**Spoiler alert**
This stuff is kinda expensive... 
Starting with the cheap stuff:  Your basic ground beef is on sale this week for $2.99 a pound at Dahls, but this local farm delivers it to your door for $5/lb. 
Beef patties aren't too outlandish at $5.75/lb delivered to your door, but for 75 cents more you could pick it up at HyVee for $5/lb. 
A roast runs around $3.80/lb at the supermarket but the local dude brings it for $6.50. 
Knock, knock... it's the local meat guy! He has your ribeye Steak for $16 but Dahls is running a deal for $10.70/lb. 
Finally, Fareway has some stew meat for sale for $3.99/lb, and local guy is offering it for $6.50. 

Now, keep in mind these are all special deals, not the usual supermarket price...  But on any given week you can find a cut of meat on sale at one of the three big grocery stores in the metro. 

Choosing to eat local isn't going to be extremely cost effective, but for a girl who can live on a two pack of pork chops and some ground turkey every week... The benefits outweigh the costs.  Literally. 

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