Michael Pollan Agreed With Me, $8 Eggs Are A Good Idea

You may remember the post I wrote in June called:

Greenmarket: Put Smarter, Cheaper & More Scrumptious Food on Your Table

In that post I attempted to make a case that paying $8 for a dozen free-range, organic, local eggs was not crazy. Yes, it may be double, even triple what you COULD pay for eggs at the grocery store, but there is a vast difference in how those egg-laying hens were likely raised, fed and bred, directly impacting the consumed end product: your egg.

So imagine my delight when I came across a WSJ article yesterday called “A Dozen Eggs for $8? Michael Pollan Explains the Math of Buying Local.” Upon reading this article I couldn’t help but think to myself, “Michael Pollan, the author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, read my blog.” I mean come on, we both bought $8 eggs and were delighted enough to make a case for all their glory by simple math: $8/12=$0.66 per rich, golden egg and a meal cheaper than any item on McDonald’s value menu. Coincidence? I think not.

It is a beautiful thing when life comes full circle. I read Pollan’s book this past winter and it changed my outlook on food shopping immensely. I was previously completely ignorant to thinking about where the food on my table originated and why some uniformly similar looking products can vary in price so drastically. Isn’t a chicken just a chicken? And then there’s the marketing behind organic, free-range, all natural — what does it all mean? Ok, so a chicken is not always just a chicken. There are certainly a range of farm sizes and approaches to raising what will one day be packaged and purchased by the unknowing consumer who picks up that standard yellow styrofoam tray, inspects the plump pinkish, skinless, boneless, veinless cutlet and goes on her merry way. Often we are unable to know anything about the origins of our dinner, other than perhaps one or two word details distinguishing its grade — so we shop based on price.

So what is the point of all this? Certainly not to encourage you to spend $8 when you can spend $4. No, the point of my post and the point of Michael Pollan’s published works and life mission is to advocate for the local-food movement. To spend more time buying from local farms where you can not only see the freshly harvested goods, but often speak to the farmer directly about how they grow their product — whether it’s an egg or a zucchini. And by visiting a local greenmarket you also know that what you’re buying is fresh and has not had to travel far to reach you — that’s good for you and for the environment {you don’t have to wear tie-dye to appreciate that}. Yes, we all have budgets we need to consider, but when shopping locally and buying what’s in season, it’s often not hard to spend the same amount of money for a higher quality product. And when should you be willing to spend more for a premium, locally grown or organic product? When it’s something you consume frequently. Counterintuitive? Perhaps, but if you eat something regularly, that just means there is a greater health impact to you or your family, so spending a little extra money now to buy local, organic or antibiotic / hormone-free of those select items will be better for you in the long run.

I challenge you: go out to a local farmer’s market this weekend. See if you can find a farmer selling pullets {the first eggs to come from a hen, which are small, rich and delicious} or any locally raised, free-range, organic eggs. They may not be $8, but give ’em a try if they are, and let me know if your meal for $1.50 didn’t taste delicious. Click HERE to find days/locations of NYC greenmarkets.

“Eight dollars for a dozen eggs sounds outrageous, but when you think that you can make a delicious meal from two eggs, that’s $1.50. It’s really not that much when we think of how we waste money in our lives.”
-Michael Pollan

Read More about my $1.50 breakfast:
Greenmarket: Put Smarter, Cheaper & More Scrumptious Food on Your Table
recipe goodness :: how to cook the perfect sunny side-up egg

Color IS an indication of flavor.