There is a link at the top of this blog to Hudson Milk + Market. This is our company, our Farmer’s Market on Wheels. Started in 1993 by my in-laws as a milk delivery service (glass bottled milk), my husband and I have taken over and transformed it into a home delivery service in our area that has over 500 REAL food products, including glass bottled milk, sourced from mostly local and regional farmers and small batch producers. We like to say we’re part of the Real Food Revolution. We believe our food system is killing us, and we’re on a mission to connect our customers to the food they eat. And hopefully help shift some mindsets along the way.
I was having a conversation with a customer a few days ago about meeting our minimum order requirement and she passed a comment about our products being a bit pricey. *sigh* I just let it go–so many things I could say in response, but I decided it wasn’t worth the energy. I know that if you are a price shopper, someone who scans supermarket circulars for the best price, or clips coupons every week, we’re not for you. Cheap food is NOT real food, nor is it good for you food. So I let it go. Eventually she added a carton of eggs.
Fast forward to last night as I was scrolling through Instagram and one of my favorite accounts I follow had a post that talked about higher prices for the food they grow and sell on her farm. Here is a screenshot of the section of the post that hit me the most:
There is nobody that says it better than Marissa. This isn’t the first time she’s posted about this and I wish more people would listen. In my unrefined explanation, I always say, “You get what you pay for.” Here’s an example outside of food: we live in the Town of Yorktown in Westchester County, NY. At the end of 2022 the town’s garbage hauler’s (or refuse company, or trash collectors) contract was ending. The town put the contract out to bid and selected the lowest bid (aka the cheapest company). It hasn’t gone well. Residents throughout the Town have experienced trash sitting out at the curb for days uncollected on more than one occasion, and the same with recycling. Facebook is littered with complaints and calls for the Town Board and Town Supervisor to be replaced. Our trash hasn’t been skipped, but our recycling has. I think for us, because we live on a main street with very high traffic and visibility they wouldn’t dare skip the trash. But regardless, as I read through the complaints I always think, “You get what you pay for.” It’s the same with contractors – I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard people tell horror stories about jobs, only to find out they selected the lowest cost contractor. You get what you pay for.
So let’s talk about food. Food that is supposed to be fuel for our bodies. Our bodies that keep us alive, that allow us to do the things we love and be the people we are. So why would you select the lowest cost option? If you drive a high performance vehicle that requires Premium Unleaded, would you opt for the cheaper low octane unleaded? Our vans run on Diesel (the price of which is killing us); what would happen if we used the lower cost unleaded fuel? We need to apply this same mindset to our bodies and what we are using to fuel them. The human body is amazing when you look at how it functions and how it can heal itself when given the proper nutrition and environment. It’s when we put crap in it that it starts to malfunction – no different than what we would experience if we started fueling our delivery vans with unleaded gasoline.
Cheap food is created to be addictive. There is a book that I highly recommend that goes into great detail about this: The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor, by Mark Schatzker. All those additives and lab created ingredients are designed to make food cheaper and addictive. So, while it costs less at the point of purchase, you eat more and in the long run it’s doing harm to your body and your health. Not to mention the harm being caused to the environment through the industrial processes required to create those chemical ingredients, along with the industrial farming practices for the “real” food ingredients they use. I put “real” in quotes because industrial farmed products contain far less nutrients than products grown and raised on smaller farms using regenerative practices. So while they look like “real” food, they don’t provide the same nutrition as vegetables grown on smaller, family owned farms (or in your own backyard for that matter).
This is just some food for thought. Things I don’t think the majority of folks really think about when they are shopping for food. We take great care in sourcing our products. We work with farms who are committed to sustainable and regenerative farming, and who use organic farming practices. We work with producers who are small batch and committed to using only REAL food ingredients. And all of them pay living wages to their employees, including Hudson Milk + Market. So yes, the products cost more, but they are better in so many ways than the cheap alternatives out there.
In my last post about the pivot of this blog I mentioned that I’d be talking about issues with our food system. So stay tuned to hear more about what I’m learning regarding the importance of understanding ingredients and sourcing and all things REAL versus Franken food.