Too Poor to be Organic

I did a bit of grocery shopping the other day, and was amazed at what people are willing to spend on organic food products. I decided to do a price comparison of the food that makes up about 99% of my kids’ daily intake to calories: Macaroni and cheese.

Vs The first step when making this tasty and filling product, as any college student knows, is to clean out the crusty, disgusting saucepan sitting in your sink.

Next boil the water and dump in the pasta. First we have the classic Kraft Mac and cheese at .92 cents a box. The other is Annie’s organic white cheddar at….$2.39!!! Holy Crap! I could get two tacos and a chili cheese burrito for that!

Once the pasta is cooked, (about 10 minutes. Two minutes if you are a college student) mix in the milk. Your basic, run-of-the-mill, hormone-laden, store brand milk of doom is $2.19, or 3 and a half cents for a ¼ cup of milk. The organic stuff in the pretty labeled carton is $7.98 a gallon! That’s about 12 and a half cents.

Add ¼ cup of butter. Evil Corporate death butter runs $2.98 a pound, or 37 cents for what we need. The butter made from milk that came from cows that live in a spa in Cancun and were asked politely to lactate costs…..$7.49!! That’s about 94 cents for what we need.

Mix thoroughly and serve. Now for the judging, by three kids ages 9,5, and 2.

Round 1, the taste test:

9 year old on Kraft M&C: “Yummy”

5 year old on Kraft M&C: “Om NOM NOM NOM!”

2 year old on Kraft M&C: “ima princess. I want more”

9 year old on organic M&C “EWWW! Why does it look like that!”

5 year old on organic M&C: “This tastes like poop”

2 year old on organic M&C: “WAAAAAAAH”

Round two: Nutrition:

Organic: No chemicals, dyes, pesticides, hormones, etc, entered our kids. Neither did any organic M&C.

Kraft: does not prevent scurvy, but keeps the kids alive.

Round three: Cost:

Kraft M&C: $0.92

Milk: $0.04 (rounded up)

Butter: $0.37

Total: $1.33, or about $0.44 per serving

Organic: $2.39

Milk: $0.13 (rounded up)

Butter: $0.94

Total: $3.46, or about $1.15 per serving!

Wow, nearly three times the cost of Kraft

Here’s a quick summary:

Taking a totally non-scientific guess by saying that the average kids eats this crap 5 times a week, the annual costs to a family with 3 kids amounts to $345.80 a year, while the organic would be $897.00 a year. Keep in mind that if you could afford the organic stuff, your kids won’t eat it anyway.