ESSAY- Bummer crop: the food you get for $50 a week

by Tanya Denckla Cobb

published 9/4/2008 in The Hook (Charlottesville, VA)

As the cost of food continues to rise dramatically, Americans face serious choices. For the vast majority of us, the question is rapidly becoming, "How much more of my income can I actually afford to spend on food?" And, equally importantly, what am I going to get for my money-- Calories or nutrition?

The average American family spends 10 percent of its annual household income on food. But this statistic belies the harsh reality for many.

One local family, for example, spends 15 percent of its income on food, which may sound manageable, until you realize this translates into a meager $75 per week to feed seven mouths. For some, food may gobble as much as 80 percent of income. Clearly, these families face impossible choices between rent, gas, clothes, even medication.

Thinking about these choices, I devised an experiment. Based on the median 2006 household income of $48,601, and assuming two people per household, the average person spends about $50 each week on food. With two colleagues from the University of Virginia, and several graduate students, I wanted to test what could be bought with this average sum....

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Tanya Cobb is Senior Associate at the University of Virginia Institute for Environmental Negotiation, teaches graduate-level food system planning courses for the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, and is author of "The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food."

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For the complete article, follow the link to The Hook's website.