$80 organic turkey....and

[FarmerChick]

and chicken?

geez we have chickens on sale here all the time. whole roaster I can get for $3.50...and that is one big chicken. (of course not organic )

Our organic chickens, whole roaster, are in the $15-$20 range...and not a huge bird either. I can't remember the per lb. but way over what the factory chickens are priced.

 

[Beekissed]

If they are selling them for that much, apparently they have made that much in the past or it is the regional pricing for which they can ask....which boggles my mind! What person, unless they had previously had lobotomy surgery, would pay $80 for 14 lbs of ANY kind of meat???

THIS....this is why I know we are not in economic collapse in this country....not quite yet.

 

[moolie]

Everything costs more in Canada than in the US. Fact of life.

We have a larger land mass, but a much smaller population (~35,000,000).

It costs money to ship things over the distances required to get to people. And for locally produced items, there is the law of supply and demand, which results in higher prices for certain things.

I won't even begin to get into the fact that in most cases people don't pay the actual cost to grow/raise their food, let alone profit for the farmer, and most producers are in debt. Which is why my family in particular chooses to support local producers who sell direct at the Farmer's Market or Co-op grocery store. Everyone deserves a living wage.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

I just sold 2 of my non-organic but non-medicated free range heritage birds for $4.50/lb. It sounded way high to me, because I know I couldn't afford to pay it, but the customers didn't bat an eye. It's worth it to them. The birds were small though...a 10 lb and 6 lb bird.

 

[me&thegals]

I wonder how many people will be able to afford those turkeys in this economy! That is ridiculous and someone really trying to make a GOOD buck on "organic." He can certainly try. Maybe there are more suckers out there will money to burn than I think.

Why? We sell our chickens for $3/lb, so our chickens are up to $20 each. And we are barely making any money at that price after cost of chicks, heat lamp/electricity, feed, butchering costs, much less our time.

My aunt's BIL does this in northern WI. A lot of his cost comes from dry ice to get the turkeys to people before they thaw. Believe me, even at $80/bird he is NOT a wealthy man.

I make part of my living growing things and selling them for way more than I would be willing to pay. I'm grateful when people understand the hard work in growing organic, and thank me for it. Best of all is when they try to pay me more than what I'm asking, as it shows me they understand. Most people on this board don't agree with factory farming, so then why do you raise your eyebrows at higher prices? You can't have organic, pastured turkeys and factory farm prices.

 

[Beekissed]

Because we are the type of people who would just grow our own before we payed those high prices. It is hard to wrap my mind around anyone paying $20 for one single chicken when it takes a mere fraction of that for me to raise one. How in the world could they afford to feed their families if they are paying that much for a single bird that would be just a portion of one meal for a family of four?

 

[me&thegals]

Oh, I totally agree we wouldn't pay those prices because we would just do it ourselves. But, having done it ourselves, if we put a price on our labor and counted up actual costs, we realize that the way we do things costs more. Our fencing cost us a lot of money, but it lets us have pastured birds. We could just keep them in the barn and not have any extra costs, but we'd like them to eat greens and have healthier meat and eggs.

I guess what I'm commenting on is people's shock, indignation or disgust. When words like "sucker" and "ridiculous" and "money to burn" are tossed around, it makes it seem like selling meat for $5+/lb is a scam, and outright theft. And I'm simply asking, how so? It costs more. Organic certification is a huge pain in the tush and expensive. Why on earth should a person not ask the best price they can get? I've not yet met a farmer who was cash wealthy.

And, I always assume people can afford to pay higher prices for food because they are cutting costs somewhere else, making more money than I am, and/or it's something they're care enough to spend more on. I have people buy 4 chickens at a time! And, actually, most of my CSA customers don't appear to be wealthy. Studies on people buying organic show them to be ALL over the income spectrum. It's just a value these people hold, and they will pay extra because it matters so much to them.

These are my customers, and I would never call them suckers. I would thank them for caring about animal's lives, the environment and their local economy. I would thank them for allowing me to make part of my living doing something I love, and something that takes part of my land out of conventional agriculture and puts it into organic food production instead. And in turn, I connect them with each other, with the land and help them learn how to prepare, eat, process the food they buy from me. We're all happy with the arrangement.

 

[moolie]

Because we are the type of people who would just grow our own before we payed those high prices. It is hard to wrap my mind around anyone paying $20 for one single chicken when it takes a mere fraction of that for me to raise one. How in the world could they afford to feed their families if they are paying that much for a single bird that would be just a portion of one meal for a family of four?

That $20 chicken feeds my family of 4 quite nicely, with leftovers for sandwiches plus soup bones--that's 3 meals.

I live in a large city, can't legally have my own chickens, and value both buying organic for my family's health and well-being, and also value the producer who provided my family with that chicken.

We don't eat meat at every meal, and our individual meat portions are smaller than typical--yet fall well within "actual" serving portions as outlined in Canada's Food Guide (similar to the US Food Pyramid). We aren't "suckers" nor do we have "money to burn"

I would counter your question above with another: how in the world are farmers and other food producers supposed to feed their families if people aren't willing to pay the true cost of food? People on this forum are always complaining about sending jobs out of America, yet unwilling to pay the true costs of supporting local producers. That dichotomy is something I just can't wrap my brain around. That's what I call "ridiculous".

YMMV.

 

[Beekissed]

Well...if they pay it, why not charge it? Especially when it is something that requires extra cost to obtain, like the "organic" label. I couldn't raise my CX truly organic at a low cost either....I settle for "all-natural" due to not being able to afford organic feeds.

 

[BarredBuff]

I have someone wanting me to do meaties from Church, and we are just gonna split costs and help with slaughtering....