Galen Weston needs another castle so sawdust bread for you!

I believe the “grow your own” suggestion is intended to be supplemental, rather than a fully developed subsistence farm in your back yard.

The beauty of growing your own is that you can decide what you want to grow! There are some things which are very easy and cheap to grow (such as fresh herbs) that are actually quite expensive and inconvenient to buy! Other things, such as potatoes, are very cheap in any grocery store (when purchased in bulk) such that growing your own is more of a hobby/curiosity than a budget saver.

Tomatoes happen to be one thing you can grow at home that are simply far more delicious than anything you can get at a store. Sometimes you might be able to get nice heirloom tomatoes at a store but they tend to be very expensive and usually seasonal.

If you get some experience growing tomatoes then you can produce a pretty large crop in a relatively small yard. With home water bath canning you can then outfit yourself with up to a year’s supply of home made pasta sauce (or even simply peeled and blanched tomatoes with basil leaf in the jar).

It’s chewy but it’s nutritious!

You don’t have bakeries over there? Bread to me seems like one of the easiest things to self-produce

Tough to boycott the lowest-price option in my area.

Yes, Loblaws, Sobeys and gang are gouging everyone.

But climate change is a big factor in rising food prices too.

Remember olive oil going up in price? Crop failure due to bad weather.

Orange juice? Disease due to climate change.

Coffee prices rising right now? Take a guess.

It’s only beginning.

it’s expensive here. Groceries are a crap shoot and if you have the ability to shop mom and pop then that’s your best bet. Thankfully I live in Toronto near an area known as “little china” so I do all my grocery shopping there and I save an absolute ton. better quality food imo too.

Rent is a crap shoot pretty much every where in the country. you’re not going to find US prices here at all. And if the place you do live is connected via a transit system to a major city then rent is going to be about the same as if you were actually living in said major city. so you’re looking at paying well over $1200 a month for just about everything. anything below that? you’re one lucky bastard.

Everything else is expensive because in Canada there’s very little, if any, competition and that’s by design. like 3 grocery chains, maybe 3 telecom providers that all provide phone, internet, and tv service so they all work together and adjusting their prices. The Canadian government is essentially in the pocket of these companies so you won’t get competition at all as the government basically won’t allow it.

It’s been like this for a very long time. Canada is expensive, has always been expensive, and will continue to be expensive because the powers that be want it that way.

Ugh, I feel this in the USA too. I went to get some groceries the other day - purposely “just picking up a few things.” I live in an area where you have to bring your own bags, and I only brought two, so I was careful with my limits.

It was still sticker shock at the register, as my total was between $90-$100 USD. What the actual fuck.

I’m sorry you’re all dealing with the same thing north of the border. I also understand if my comment isn’t welcome in this community - I’ll delete it if so. I just found the meme painfully relatable and wanted to commiserate.

My parents have had decent success packaging and freezing some farm stand stuff for later.

I’m genuinely curious: have you looked into co ops in your area? Some deliver!

Your folks have the right idea! I’ll add that canning certain things is also a great skill to learn

American’s are still welcome to Canada, just leave the MAGA bullshit at the door. We’re still sibling states. Even though our older brother is increasingly hateful and violent, you’re still our brother. We’re worried about you. We won’t tolerate any of your abuse though.

Same hit in the UK, same hit in Germany.

(With the exception of LIDL, for some reason they understand how to keep prices down)

I love Canada, wish I could move there lol

Land available isn’t true at all. A sunny windowsill could provide a family with herbs, leafy greens or something like tomatoes. Check out the kratky method for a pretty cheap introduction to hydroponics

I manage a produce department of an IGA, and for years I’ve had the freedom to order produce from cheaper third-parties to keep my prices low. I have always maintained a 99¢ /lb. to $1.99 /lb. maximum sale price on bulk apples, but just recently Sobeys (our parent company) forced our largest third-party supplier to become an “official ordering partner” and to match all of their costing or lose our business. Now those third-parties are pointless to order from unless I am shorted a bunch of produce from our warehouse. And my apples? $2.49 /lb. to $4.99 /lb., depending on the variety. An absolute fucking joke.

Orange juice? Disease due to climate change.

That’s very recent.

A more historical look at orange production - particularly in Florida - shows it peaked in the early '00s at 250M boxes, then plunged to 12M boxes thanks to disease, hurricanes, and real estate development.

But the root reason is that orange surpluses were thinning profits. Drastic reduction in production pushed up unit prices without materially increasing costs.

Orange agribusiness is doing fine. It’s the retail purchases who are eating shit

Remember olive oil going up in price? Crop failure due to bad weather.

The destruction of historical olive groves has been a major Israeli tool for displacing native Arab peoples.

This isn’t just bad weather. It’s manufactured poverty through ethnic cleansing.

We’re seeing similar events in Central Africa, Ukraine, the Kashmir region of India, and now the US military campaign against Venezuelan fishermen.

Olive grove destruction in Palestine is a horrible part of the genocide. But not a factor in olive oil price rises in Canada. The stuff we see here is produced in Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Greece etc.

You’re welcome. We are upset with the USA, not Americans.

Someone in another Lemmy post suggested CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In essence, you give farmers a down payment for a period of time and in exchange you get share of the harvest.

Community-supported agriculture - Wikipedia

(en.wikipedia.org)

I was looking at the prices and to get two seasons (Summer and Winter) of both produce and meat would cost $1,500ish a year. I would be pay about $125 a month. Which is less than the almost $200 a month, I pay.

It’s definitely something I will be doing in the future.