OTA's blog

During a recent grocery shopping trip in Vermont, our Savvy Organic Shopper went in search of ingredients to make a holiday favorite: hot spiced cider.

On a recent trip to Hannaford’s and the Brattleboro Food Co-op in Brattleboro, VT, our Savvy Organic Shopper discovered great deals on ingredients for holiday baking.

On a recent trip to the P Street Whole Foods Market in Washington, DC, our Savvy Organic Shopper found natural corn flakes priced at $2.49 and organic corn flakes priced at $2.69. She also found organic bananas priced at $.99 per pound (conventional were $.79 per pound), and a half-gallon of Whole Foods’ organic orange, mango and peach juice for $3.79. (The same quantity of non-organic, premium orange juice was priced at $3.99).

Our Savvy Organic Shopper passed through the Bradley International Airport in Hartford, CT today and found a medium organic coffee at Fresh City selling for $2; at McDonald’s, the same size Green Mountain Coffee Roasters organic coffee sold for $2.29. A medium, non-organic coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts was the most expensive, priced at $2.39.

On a recent trip to the farmers’ market in Brattleboro, VT, our Savvy Organic Shopper came across organic ground beef for $6 per pound and grass-fed beef for $8 per pound. She also found organic and grass-fed stew meat, both priced at $8 per pound. Did you know, though, that organic cows are fed grass as a substantial part of their diet? By law, organic cows must have access to the outdoors and graze on rich and nutritious grass for a minimum of one third of their lives.

On a recent trip to Whole Foods Market in Columbus Circle in Washington, D.C., our Savvy Organic Shopper came across a number of competitively priced organic ingredients that can be used to make delicious, and affordable, family meals. Let’s start with pasta. Organic fusilli pasta was priced $1.29 per pound, while conventional was $.99 per pound.  Now let’s look at chicken, another great staple to have on hand for family meals. Natural chicken breasts were priced at $4.99, while organic were $6.99. How about cherry tomatoes?

The Savvy Organic Shopper stopped by the Dupont Circle Farmers Market in Washington, D.C.  and found competitive prices on local, organic foods. Vine-ripe organic tomatoes were being sold for $3.00 per pound, while conventional tomatoes were $4.50 per pound. Organic eggplant was $2.60 per pound, whereas conventional eggplant was $3.60 per pound. At $2.00 per pound, organic cucumbers were also a dollar cheaper per pound than their conventional counterparts. 

On a recent trip to Safeway in Washington, D.C., our Savvy Organic Shopper found that the price of a number of organic products beat out their non-organic, name-brand equivalents. A 32-ounce container of private label (more commonly thought of as “store-brand”) O Organics chicken broth was $2.99, while the same amount of non-organic chicken broth was $3.19.