Bill: Jonni we have a whole group of
folks in our gallery here at FOF and I know that many of them have questions for
you based on some of the things you’ve been discussing so we’re going to open up
our microphones and let some of our visitors ask you whatever they like, this
could be risky (laughter). If you would tell us your name, where you’re from,
and then what your question is for Jonni.
Annette: My name is Annette Neilson and I’m from Colorado Springs, and I have a
question for Jonni. She mentioned buying higher quality foods when her son had
the allergies. That is something that I’m very concerned about my husband and I
have been married for 28 years so our budget for food is a little higher than
when we were young, newly married, with toddlers, but I am concerned the RBST in
milk, dairy products, cheeses, some of the things that they put in our meats and
what not. How do you balance having healthy food but also having a balanced
budget?
Jonni: That is an awesome question.
Eating healthy, shopping for healthy food follows the same principles as
shopping for regular grocery store food. The health stores have the same sales
flyers as grocery stores do. So you want to work around those as much as
possible. We tried to shop, we tried to learn, (stumble) we tried to learn our
unit prices as best as we could from the local health food stores. And we found
that certain things are cheaper at some of the health food stores than others.
One of the stores has produce for significantly less than the other does. We
also found that the meats that we wanted to get the all organic meats those were
very expensive. Of course we did stock up when they did go on sale at these
health food stores. But we then went a step further and found a farmer who
raises cattle hormone free, anti-biotic free, and we go in with a couple of
neighbors or friends, and we purchase this cow at it comes out at about $3.20 a
lb, for all-organic, grass-fed, high-amino acid beef.
There are other ways; every
neighborhood that I have been in has some sort of outlet for something more
organic. Dairy farms produce markets, there are farmers who will do shares, even
here in Colorado you can buy a share of a farm, and every month you will get a
basket of what they have produced that month, again it’s all organic.
Then whatever we couldn’t find we had
to learn to make it ourselves. You know my son couldn’t tolerate any of the
convenience foods because of some of the additives. You know there were certain
companies who made the convenience foods that were completely acceptable for him
but I couldn’t afford them. So those I learned how to make pretty much anything
he loved. I even figured out to make peanut butter cups. You have to just have
to work with it, but between the sale prices and learning how to buy in bulk at
certain stores, and learning how to make your own we were still able to stay
within the budget.
Annette: Thank you.