Finding affordable food
Recommend on Google+
This short BBC article reports on a new study from the World Cancer Research Fund which claims that it is possible to eat a healthy diet even when family budgets are stretched close to breaking point.
“Increases in food prices, and pressures on the family budget because of continuing economic problems, may prompt people to buy less fruit and vegetables because they think they are too expensive and are worried about wastage.”
Canny consumers can save money by buying fruits and vegetables in season, making good use of price offers and searching for cheaper frozen vegetables and canned fruit.
The article links to some important AS micro issues:
The causes of higher global food prices (agflation)
Food affordability and effective demand
The impact of agflation on different income groups
Value judgements about which foods count as healthy - indeed which might be termed as merit goods
Possible information failures about the nutritional values of food, private and external costs of diet choices, portion control
The search costs of finding the best value
Consumer and producer surplus
The economic and social justifications for different types of government intervention.
Direct from the report:
For people on a budget, Nathalie’s Five a Day for less than £1 menu is:
1. Banana (with porridge) for breakfast costs 14p
2. Apple (for mid morning snack) costs 22p
3. Baked beans (on a jacket potato) costs 29p
4. Frozen peas costs 8p
5. Frozen sweetcorn (with the frozen peas, grilled fish and new potatoes for dinner) costs 7p
Total cost: 80p
blog comments powered by Disqus
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Look Upwards to Find the next Downturn [15 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Foods that Make Billions [15 Jan 2012]
China’s newest 5 year plan - and how it could change the world! [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Competitive Advantage in Trade (Some Videos) [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Natural Disasters and their Economic Impact [7 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Low Cost Airlines Beat the Recession [1 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Biomass Subsidies and Timber Prices [30 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Video Clips on Negative Production Externalities [29 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopoly and Duopoly in Bus Markets [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Empty Housing and Economic Efficiency [15 Dec 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tacit Collusion in the Supermarket [27 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: 50 Years since the end of the Max Wage in Football [23 Nov 2011]
Pasty Prices - Something to Chew Over [19 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Bittersweet Symphony - The Psychology of Food [8 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Costs and Benefits of a Super Sewer for London [1 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination in Action [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economists attack food price speculation [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Ofcom gives stamp of approval for flexible pricing in mail [21 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: World Food Day [16 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Fat tax: Denmark [5 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Producing Coffee - Kenya in Pictures [4 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Homework Assignment on Market Prices [2 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Equilibrium Market Prices [27 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Sleep, Money, Happiness and Choices! [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Bangladesh and Comparative Advantage in Textiles [19 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Fixed and Variable Costs [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Study Note - What is Macroeconomics? [13 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Value Added in Production and GDP [11 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Short Run Costs of Production [6 Sep 2011]
NHS spending good, private provision bad? [5 Sep 2011]
Starter Activity: Health Economics [1 Sep 2011]
An activity for the first Economics lesson of the year! [31 Aug 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Business Costs and Profits [25 Aug 2011]
Monetary Policy Roundtable [25 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Zondle Game: 10 Question Quiz about OPEC [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
The Future of Food Retailing? Tesco in South Korea [27 Jun 2011]
AS Micro: Fears over a century of hunger [22 Jun 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
Poor Economics - Esther Duflo at the LSE [3 Jun 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: The Output Gap [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition Policy [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly and Collusion [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Entry Barriers in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Consequences of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Outsourcing [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Minimum Efficient Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: External Economies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Economies of Scope [18 May 2011]
AS economics: Using the cost-benefit principle [18 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Commodity Prices [5 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
AS Micro: Rising Global Food Prices [2 May 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Mock Exam Question on Sugar Prices [28 Apr 2011]
Wiki Revision: A to Z on Monopoly [23 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: Changes in Costs and Profits [23 Apr 2011]
ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.
