$1.25/pound Watermelon

[rlibkind]

$1.25 / pound

That's the price of these round watermelons last weekend at the Fair Food Farmstand in Philadelphia's Reading Terminal Market. More than twice as expensive as at Iovine Brother's Produce at the RTM or at any supermarket.

Now, they may be wonderful watermelons, but that's a price I am unwilling to pay. Which brings us to the larger question: have we been spoiled by industrial food production?

While there's a lot to not like about today's industrialized agriculture, from overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to trans-continental shipping, it does bring a wide variety of wholesome fruits and vegetables to the consumer.

Now, local farmers producing premium local produce deserve a profit, and I doubt whoever grew the $1.25/melon is a rapacious profiteer. Yet, one has to wonder how commercial watermelon growers who supply both supermarkets and Iovine's can bring their melons to market at such a tremendously lower price than the smaller scale farmers. Volume, of course, is one reason, and undoubtedly the use of chemical adjuncts improves yield.

We're blessed in this country with very low food prices. This summer I spent a month in Norway. While the costs of housing, education and medical care in that Nordic nation are considerably lower to the consumer than here, food costs are considerably higher. Chicken at the supermarket (not organic, small-farm chicken, mind you, but chicken from the same type of industrial poultry industry as here) is more than twice as costly as in the U.S. The same goes for produce. (Nectarines currently sell for about $4.50/pound at the Mega Coop, a large Norwegian chain, about four times the price of California nectarines in Philadelphia; the supermarket probably gets them from about the same distance away, most likely Spain or another Mediterranean clime.)

Still, one has to wonder why there's such a huge price disparity between the watermelon at the Fair Food Farmstand and Iovine's. Won't a dime a pound cover the difference instead of six or seven dimes? And if it won't, why?

And here's another take on the high price of produce from farmers' markets:

Can the wonderful farmers' markets of Philadelphia and other cities be undermining the availability of affordable, nutritious food to poorer residents in areas where the food is grown?

That's a hypothesis put forth in an article at Salon, an interview with Linda Alecia, one of the founding faculty of Franilin & Marshall College's Local Economy Center in Lancaster.

You can read about it here.

[Holly Moore]

Maybe because I'm not a tremendous fan of watermelon - I just haven't seen much variance in watermelons, at least in flavor. Yes, ripeness plays a part. But even with a nicely ripe watermelon I don't recall ever pausing and saying, "That was a really great watermelon."

[RWood]

I keep laughing about a watermelon my uncle bought while I was visiting in Tennessee. The thing weighed 60 lbs, and I asked how much did it cost and he said "Six dollars, but the guy threw in a cantaloupe too." I couldn't believe that thing, but it was very good.

[djyee100]

If I understand correctly, the Fair Food watermelon's only distinctive characteristic, compared to a melon in a typical supermarket, is that the FF melon is locally grown (within 150 mile radius or less?) as opposed to being picked less ripe & trucked from California, Florida, or another farflung state. It is not organic, correct?

Compared to conventional produce, organic produce can require more work in farming (e.g., hand-hoeing for weeds with some crops), with a more limited production overall. The organic farms I know of are all owner-operated small farms. Certified organic produce is usually triple the cost of conventional produce, even here in California. However, I do believe that catering to an affluent, urban market ups the price, too.

If the FF melon is only locally grown, not organic, then I wonder what the justification is for that price on the production side. Obviously there are economies of scale for the out-of-state mega-farms, but that much? The reason for the high price may lie in what FF believes someone is willing to pay for a (hopefully) great-tasting watermelon that fulfills the ideal of being "locally grown." (Note: Nature is so variable that the same field can produce fruits of wildly different quality. At times I've tasted conventional produce that beats out comparable organic produce, and vice versa. Depending on how the weather has been here, I've also tasted produce from Mexico, Florida, or Arizona that beats out stuff that's grown a one-hour drive from where I live. So go figure.)

As for the issue mentioned in the Salon article, many years ago (if I remember correctly), 4 or 5 pioneering organic farms in a valley north of here received complaints from local townspeople that the produce was being shipped to Sacramento and the SF Bay Area, bypassing the nearest towns. The farms got together and started a weekend farmers market in one of the towns, and that ended the complaints. Of course, this is organic produce, so the locals probably experienced sticker shock at the prices (like the rest of us).

[weinoo]

I think you're also paying for freshness. That local watermelon was probably picked a day or two before; the California or Mexican giant might have been picked 2 weeks earlier.

[rlibkind]

I think you're also paying for freshness. That local watermelon was probably picked a day or two before; the California or Mexican giant might have been picked 2 weeks earlier.

I don't see how that, in particular, causes a price difference, other than "what the traffic will bear". The transportation costs from California or Mexico for a single watermelon probably aren't much, if anything, more, than a local farmer in his truck going 50 miles, given volumes and fuel efficiencies (or dis-efficiencies, in the case of the local farm truck).

[weinoo]

Yes, but I wasn't referring to transportation costs; merely the fact that the fruit is fresher by not spending a week on a truck.

[rlibkind]

Yes, but I wasn't referring to transportation costs; merely the fact that the fruit is fresher by not spending a week on a truck.

Mitch, my point, as far as price input goes, is that a week on a truck is negligible, perhaps even less expensive than the local farmer bringing that melon to market. "Freshness" falls into the "what the traffic will bear" category, at least as far as produce costs and consumer price are concerned.

[weinoo]

It's negligible only if you don't like fresh produce. If one does, then one ponies up.