Tuesday, December 13, 2011

How Much Do Fruits and Vegetables Cost?

Talking about what to eat on a budget led me to this report by the USDA:

How Much Do Fruits and Vegetables Cost? (pdf), Economic Research Service of the USDA, February 2011

Processed fruits and vegetables weren't always more or less expensive than fresh. I saw that, for example, carrots were cheaper to eat fresh, but peaches were cheaper to eat canned.

Carrots:
  • Fresh 0.77/lb
  • Canned 0.69/lb
  • Frozen 1.19/lb
  • Fresh 0.25/cup
  • Canned 0.34/cup
  • Frozen 0.39/cup
Peaches:
  • Fresh 1.84/lb
  • Canned 1.05/lb
  • Fresh 0.66/cup
  • Canned 0.58/cup
Some graphs from the report (you can click them for better resolution):





So, the least expensive vegetables were potatoes, cauliflower, cabbage, onions, and carrots. The least expensive fruits were watermelon, bananas, honeydew, oranges, and grapefruit. (Mangoes were cheaper than apples?)
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Cabbage still life by Jonathan Koch. I'd love to see that in-person.

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