If you’re trying to eat healthier, you are undoubtedly including more fresh veggies in your diet. You may be wondering why fresh food costs more. But have you ever stopped to consider the enormous effort that goes into getting fresh food to your table? If your vegetables are homegrown, you may know a thing or two, but if you’re getting them from the store, you would be surprised by the work that it takes. Here are just three of the reasons that fresh produce can cost a little bit more.
Farming is a Business
Not only is farming hard work—it’s a tough business. Farmers can face serious financial damages through storm damage, frost damage, pest infestation, and diseased plants. On top of all the logistics of farming, they also need to run their business. Many farmers use a business network to help them with the nuts and bolts of the business. They do this because they simply don’t have the time to do it themselves. When you think about all of this effort, it’s pretty impressive that we can get our food for as cheap as we do.
Transportation Logistics
Transporting fresh food is much harder than transporting other commercial goods. The food needs to be transported quickly so that it can be sold before it goes bad. While in transport, it needs to be kept refrigerated. It can’t get too hot, or it can get mushy, it can’t get too cold or it will get frozen and lose its freshness. It also needs to be protected from flies and other insects during its transportation. But perhaps the most difficult factor is the growing season. Farms will be harvesting fresh vegetables at different times of the year. Stores need to change up their suppliers during the year so that they can ensure a steady supply of fresh food all year long.
Shelf Life
Once the food gets to the store, the complications don’t end there. A store has to carefully manage the amount of fresh food it keeps in stock. If they have too much food on the shelf, they’ll end up having to throw some of it away as it goes bad. If they don’t, they risk the old fruit infecting the new fruit. On the other hand, if they don’t have enough in stock, they risk customer dissatisfaction. The proper handling of the supply chain for fresh food is a difficult and important task.
There is certainly a lot more that goes into bringing fresh vegetables to your table than most people think. This should help increase your gratitude for the modern society that we live in. Sure, most modern food is doused with preservatives, but modern technology has made fresh food available like it never was in the past. Because of these things, healthy cooking with fresh produce is easier and more feasible than it was before.
If you’re a fan of plant-based goods, we have tons of vegan baked things to offer. Check them out in our product catalog!
