Now consider how we feel, buying pork at R2,99/kg, chicken under Rand per kilo around 1990, cheapest in town direct from a proper butcher, now pork avg R100/kg, chicken approx R70/kg, no butchery available these are store prices, it's a total rip off.
I used to buy for family of 5, half pig, lamb and hind quarter of beef monthly with one or two chickens, selected the meat hanging in cold room, collected in the afternoon packed the way I requested, deep freeze at home for a month now no electricity? WTF
That is really a shock to the system. I know that, buying any meat product really hurts the bank account. Eating more vegetables that I grow myself, saving on those costs, but the savings go straight to buying proteins. It is so frustrating because it really shouldn’t be like that. The middle man (shops) are taking ever bigger cuts making record profits for share holders while the farmer and buyer struggles to make ends meet. If this is not the moment that we return to buying from the farmer or the local butcher who works with the farmer, we will never return.
I simply try find ways to have the proteins buying cheaper cuts preparing them properly before cooking. Veggies local from small store that goes to market twice a week is way cheaper than supermarkets. Farmers are squeezed while supermarkets bloat their profit lines, they have lost the plot growing our own no matter how little does help.
Such a shame that this is our standard. I have seen so much change in the little time I have been active in growing and buying food. I just wonder where will it end? With prices so high no one can buy? Or will we return to buying directly from the farmer? Or will we begin to grow and farm in our back yards again? I saw that a municipality in Belgium gave each citizen a couple of chickens, and the demand for eggs in the shop went down so much that they could not sell eggs any longer. Maybe we should return to this style?
We grew up with everything from the garden including the chicken coop, something to be done all years round. Now people have forgotten the art, and are searching for a way back again.
That would be great if we return to this. I know even from my small garden there is stuff to do year round. Compost never sleeps and there is always planting and harvesting going on.
What people do without a garden I am not sure.
Same. I yearn to own my own property one day but with prices increasing on almost a daily basis I am not sure about that any more!