Food is our biggest bill. Granted, it is the bill that can be adjusted to some extent, but I think I have learned to adjust as much as possible.
We do not drink a lot of milk. For awhile we used rice milk instead, but that is pricey as well.
I understand the farmer's need more money I suppose. What I do not understand is why every form of food that is nutritious and essential is becoming out of reach for people under a certain income.
riiight. meanwhile, everyone's kvetching about the price of gasoline. of course, i don't have to buy 20 gallons of milk a pop, but we're paying more per gallon for milk!
my mom and mom-on law both did the mix half fresh milk with half reconstituted dried milk thing.
I used to use exclusively dried milk for cooking purposes, saving the fresh for drinking. Now, with only 3 in the house (and I don't drink milk - blechhh), we don't notice the price as much.
I use dried milk exclusively for cooking, but I imagine the cost of that will rise as well?
that's weird, I tried pricing out dried milk but didn't see where it would come out to a savings. I don't use that much milk in cooking, though.
Everything made with milk seems to be high now. Trader Joe's used to have butter for around $2.50/ lb or so, and this morning it was $3.30....
We've been forced to switch exclusively to powdered water.
I'm not much for economics. Does whatever is causing this price increase affect organic milk too or is that a whole different agricultural world? I feel like such a spendthrift admitting we buy organic milk now :) I'm not sure how often, a couple of times a week? I always go shopping w/my husband because I don't drive, or he goes alone, so I don't really spend much time analyzing the prices to have time to memorize them and notice the differences.
When we lived in Albany, I had a milk man come and deliver organic milk in glas bottles, but we are far from him now. I cannot afford it now, but I can buy raw milk for $1.25 a gallon from my neighbor.
In Trenton we have a place called Halo Farms (microdairy) whose milk is organic and they sell it for $.99 for half a gallon.
I miss that place.
Pansy,
Is upstate NY affected by the Northeast Dairy Compact?
I think that is New England states thing.
Given that it's the USDA who announced the price increase, I think you can safely blame the government.
In some places here in the far North of Canada, a liter of milk costs $16 Cdn. (That's about $12US, I think.)A single apple can cost $3. If you can get it, because all of this stuff is flown in from the south. Sometimes the milk is sour and the veggies are rotten by the time they reach a small community without roads.
But a can of Coke costs a buck, just like anywhere else in the rest of Canada. And it's plentiful.
And people wonder why Inuit and First Nations people in the far North have poor nutrition and terrible dental problems. Add to this that many people don't know the old ways of hunting and gathering from the land.... it just sets up dependency.
Here in Yellowknife, a liter of milk is about $3.50Cdn, except during the spring, when it's about $5. (The one road south is cut by a huge river, and the ice bridge over the river is out. Our summer ferry can't start running until all the huge pieces of ice have cleared from the river into the ocean.)
So I can totally relate to the price of milk thing. The stuff costs a freakin' fortune. Thank goodness my work gives me a Northern living allowance to offset some of the costs of groceries.
oh Cin, that's awful. I see you have a Northern living allowance -- do other employers do that?
From what I've heard, it's not the farmers who are getting the increases. They're still just barely getting by, save for those who are in cooperatives which help protect them against gouging by middle-men.
I haven't done a lot of our shopping in a couple of weeks and almost plotzed when I saw the price of the 'cheap' brand of milk. All I could do was joke to the kids that it will keep people from going crazy and trying to use milk in their cars. Gas is still cheaped than milk.
Peony -- all the government agencies do give a living allowance (federal and territorial government) as well as some businesses.
But most people just have to get by on their basic paycheque. And there are many people in communities with no wage-based economy whatsoever. The only businesses in town are the band office, nursing station, and the band-run store. Obviously not everyone can work there. Some people do things the old way (hunt and trap) and supplement their income with welfare. Others just take the welfare.
However, there is some hope. Many First Nations bands here have recently negotiated land claims agreements, which gives them control of their land. And that land is chock-full of high-quality diamonds. The band leaders have been very smart, and won't allow diamond mining companies to mine here unless they guarantee jobs to the band members. The companies also pay to train many of these people in a trade, so they're not just making beds.
Motivated aboriginal people are beginning to truly prosper here.
Anyway, enough about the North. I'm sorry to hear your farmers aren't making much more, even with the price increase. Farmers are the most undervalued people on the planet.
Hey, I heard the price of ice cream is set to rise too. Something to do with the cost of vanilla and cocoa.
Don't they already use artificial vanillin in a lot of products because of the price? Even Godiva chocolate, with its silly price tag, uses vanillin! Very disappointing, not that we buy much of it ourselves (a relative gives it as a gift a lot.)