January Food Cost Update

If you have been reading since last summer, you will know that I started a project where I tracked my food purchases. I wanted to understand how much Michigan grown or produced food I was purchasing.

Here’s how I defined the food that I tracked.
• Michigan grown fresh foods
• Processed in Michigan (and contains more than just a simple food product. So, yes to any Eden Organics can of beans, but no to Eden’s bagged dry quinoa.)
• No restaurant food – skews the values, and we eat at locally owned restaurants
• No beer or wine – skews the values, and we drink mostly MI beer and wine
• Bakery and deli products whether from a grocery store, independent bakery, or restaurant deli are included as processed foods. The grocery store baked breads that come to them in frozen unbaked loaves are not counted as Michigan products.
• Locally roasted coffee
• Locally made chocolates

My original idea was to track for an entire year. However, that changed when I lost the data due to an Autumn computer meltdown. I posted my Lessons Learned. Since I had the post with the July statistics, I decided to track January for comparison.

JULY 2010:
Percent of Michigan fresh foods compared to all fresh food purchased: 87%
Percent of Michigan processed foods compared to all processed food purchased: 66%
Percent of total Michigan foods compared to all food purchased: 81%
Percent of sustainable (MI, Amish, organic & fair trade) foods compared to all food purchased: 88%

JANUARY 2011:
Percent of Michigan fresh foods compared to all fresh food purchased: 76%
Percent of Michigan processed foods compared to all processed food purchased: 49%
Percent of total Michigan foods compared to all food purchased: 56%
Percent of sustainable (MI, Amish, organic & fair trade) foods compared to all food purchased: 77%

My numbers are still pretty good. It looks like I was less diligent with my Michigan processed food purchases. Last summer Spartan stores were flagging Michigan foods which made it much easier to identify and choose them for purchase. I also made an olive oil purchase in January that added to the non-Michigan column.

My local farmers market has still been providing me with lettuces, squash, apples, and root vegetables. I am still purchasing mostly lemons and mushrooms as my non-Michigan fresh produce. We are eating the foods that I preserved last summer. And, our total food costs are much, much lower this time of year. The lower total food costs also had an effect on the Michigan food percentages.

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