What are some food items that cost less than what they "should"?

I agree with you but there are more ethical ways to eat meat while also saving money. Last year my wife and I purchased 1/4 of an entire cow from a farm about 35 miles north of us (friends and family bought the other 3/4). This cow was responsibly raised, grass fed, on a small, local farm. We received 200 pounds of meat with probably a dozen different cuts of meat. This includes dozens of pounds of excellent steak and the meat is simply amazing. We will definitely be going this route moving forward as we averaged the price per pound to ~$4/lb which is far less than the local grocery.

I understand this isn't possible for everyone as we also had to purchase a chest freezer which requires space but has made our grocery bill far smaller and the meat we are eating much better in many ways.

I started eating substantially less meat over the last 10 years. The money I save eating less goes towards higher quality meats from small farms. Weirdly, it depends on if you know where to go. If you buy from a farm that also butchers and packages the meat, it's going to cost and arm and a leg because they are selling both convenience and are aware that audience they are selling to has more money. However, if you purchase say 1/2 a cow and arrange to have it butchered, you pay a lot upfront, but it's even cheaper in the long run. Only problem is, you'll likely need a chest freezer.

Yeah, I've been making efforts to reduce meat from my diet for plenty of reasons. But I enjoy the taste, so I'm excited for lab-grown meat!

Hold up. We exploit South America pretty hard too.

What about Asia? Are we forgetting Africa is China's China right now?

"This Jacobo, he's making us pay minimum wages!... and that's not all, he's taking our unused land and giving it back to the people! Does that sound familiar?"

Without a doubt. And when it's things that can only grow in those parts of the world, it can be harder to find alternatives.

Not that I can afford them, lol

Yeah, but they can keep those deli snack cakes on the shelf for years until they're sold; you have to throw the salad out after a couple days. /s

It's not much different in Canada. I strongly dislike all the HFCS-sweetened stuff.

For anyone curious about this, go google “cheese caves”. The US government has massive caverns full of cheese. The government keeps buying cheese to subsidize the dairy industry, and ensure they keep enough dairy cows around.

But this also means they have a metric fuckload of cheese, and no way to get rid of it. They can’t just give it away to the public or sell it at cost, because that would crash the price, which would harm the farmers, which would defeat the entire purpose of the subsidy in the first place. So they just lock it in a cave. The government has entire caves that are just packed full of cheese. It’ll never be eaten, and is simply left there to age.

I believe one of the biggest reasons for even keeping the cheese around at all (instead of just doing something like tossing it into a volcano) is so they can use it as a strategic food reserve during war or famine. If, for instance, the government suddenly needs to feed a much larger army, it can start tapping into that massive food reserve simply by opening the cheese caves and pulling out the (now very aged) cheese. But that’s a very large “what if”. Or maybe there’s some big disease that wipes out the majority of the dairy cows. The government would be able to keep shelves stocked while farmers work on replenishing their herds.

I was always wonder how the heck did beef and milk are so cheap in US. I live in south Asia btw. Our income and wages are dog shit compared to the USA, yet our (normal) beef cost US$15 per kilo (the "good stuffs" could cost up to US$25 per kilo).

Unfortunately a lot of rice is contaminated with arsenic due to pesticides. The only way to remove the arsenic also removes most of its nutrients. So you might be better off going for a different grain like wheat, oats or barley.

Arsenic aside, rice is probably one of the best deals when you consider how long a bag can feed you.

We can't grow rice in Canada, so that definitely applies to us! Still cheap here, though.

Our housing market is not a free market because government heavily suppresses the supply side.

Dumb take, the housing prices isn't caused by the free market, it's caused by the lack of it. There's a huge demand for new houses in this country, but developers literally cannot build them because of our shitty zoning and some of our brain dead regulations.

Where are you that almonds are cheap?

But when you think about it, beans should be cheaper than meat or something. Yeah a bag makes a whole bunch of beans but it's straight ground to plate vs feeding a cow from birth. In fact relatively speaking of seems like the bean to cow cost ratio is out of proportion, the beans should be cheaper or the cow should be more.

That does depend on where you are in the world. Even in North America, not everyone can just turn on a tap.

As well, it's generally our tax dollars that go to treating and supplying it. So we do pay for it.

That said, you're absolutely right. It's my favourite thing to drink, and it probably wouldn't be if I had to pay for every glass! Lol

Access to clean drinking water should be a human right. Water shouldn’t cost anything. So it can never be too cheap.

And even then, with chocolate, costs are rising. You can tell by how prevalent things like "chocolatey chips" are.

We've gotten too used to having cheap coffee and chocolate, and I'm disappointed with the substitutes...too bad I can't afford the ethical stuff quite yet, lol

I can get 4 for a dollar where I live in the States

Yeah it's cheap, but I miss when it was $0.10/pack cheap, cheaper than dirt.

And I'm thankful for it!

It kind of makes sense though. Pasta is cheap too. Most ramen packs are less noodles than you'd get in a bag of pasta, but with a bit of packaged salt/seasoning mix. It can also be manufactured anywhere with stuff that grows locally (at least where I am).

I'm not sure if world domination usually comes with an election, but I'd vote for you!

True! I've heard that those are about making customers hungry, or are used as loss-leaders. Their value to the business goes beyond the price!

I would argue that that's because you should be paid more money. That's why I'm not suggesting we should be paying more. Just kind of wondering what foods are "artificially" priced low due to exploitation of labour (etc).

Maybe it's made from the milk they couldn't sell? Haha

That's a good point, though!

Of course. And I'm not buying one banana either.

It's got to be more than an economy of scale though, right?

Bananas are still cheap, though!