Let’s talk about cheap food. You know, the kind that promises a full belly for $4.99 and makes you feel like you’re “saving money” while conveniently ignoring the real cost. The kind that’s fast, easy, and everywhere. But here’s the ugly truth, my friends: cheap food isn’t cheap at all. In fact, it’s robbing us blind—our health, our wallets, our farmers, and our planet.
Let’s start with the basics. How does a fast-food burger cost less than a head of lettuce? It’s not magic; it’s a broken system. The government pours billions of dollars into subsidies for commodity crops like corn and soy, which are then turned into cheap feed for factory-farmed animals or processed into the junk ingredients that fill every aisle of the grocery store. Meanwhile, the farmers growing fresh produce? They’re barely scraping by because healthy food isn’t subsidized in the same way.
And that $1 burger? It doesn’t include the hidden costs. The healthcare bills from skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The environmental destruction from overworked soils, polluted water supplies, and deforested land. The lost livelihoods of farmers who can’t compete with industrial ag giants. So, let me ask you: is it really affordable?
Here on the farm, we feel the ripple effects of this system every day. We work hard to raise food in a way that nourishes people and the land, but the comparison to cheap, mass-produced food is a losing game. Our eggs cost more than the $3.68 styrofoam-packaged ones at Walmart, but they’re also richer in nutrients, free of harmful chemicals, and come from birds treated with respect. And yet, we have to fight the perception that what we offer isn’t “worth it.”
But let’s get personal for a second. What’s cheap food doing to you? You might save a few bucks at the drive-thru today, but what about tomorrow? What about when your doctor hands you a prescription for blood pressure meds or a diabetes diagnosis? What about the cost of missed workdays, surgeries, and the quality of life you lose along the way? It’s no coincidence that the same system making fast food cheap is also driving up healthcare costs. They’re two sides of the same coin, and we’re the ones paying for it.
And don’t even get me started on the moral cost. The animals crammed into factory farms, the workers underpaid and overworked in dangerous conditions, the soil stripped of its life to feed a system designed to exploit and discard. If food is so cheap it feels like a steal, it’s probably stealing something from someone—whether it’s a farmer’s livelihood, a community’s health, or the planet’s future.
So, what can we do? For starters, stop buying into the lie that cheap food is a necessity. It’s not. What we need is accessible, nutrient-dense food that supports our health, our farmers, and the Earth. We need to stop rewarding a system that prioritizes profits over people. And yes, that means spending a little more, cooking a little more, and thinking a lot more about where our food comes from.
Because here’s the thing: every dollar you spend on food is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in. Do you want to keep feeding a machine that leaves us sick, broke, and disconnected? Or do you want to support a system that heals the land, uplifts farmers, and actually nourishes us?
The choice is yours, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. Cheap food isn’t cheap—it’s the most expensive lie we’ve ever been sold.
Until next time,
Traci
