The $1.98 Hamburger

Natural Acres in Millersburg, Pennsylvania raises and sells organic, grass-fed, local Black Angus (although I think they are shifting away from meat to red raspberries). My husband balked at the prices the single time I bought it and I haven’t had it since. This past weekend, after sitting in my bike seat for nearly 4 hours, I divulged in bad food – a hamburger BBQ on a white roll, chips, pretzels, macaroni and cheese and cookies. It was all processed, non-organic, and likely factory-farmed beef. I hate to say it, but I didn’t feel guilty eating it – it was part of my too-high entrance fee for the race and I was getting my money’s worth! But I immediately got back on the wagon the next day, and decided to add a little more meat into my diet. I already took the plunge last week with some local organic chicken, so I headed to Natural Acres for some local organic beef. Most of it really was too expensive, so I settled for the 90/10 ground round at $6.48 a pound. Yup, that’s outrageous too, but I justified it like this: one pound made 4 burgers so that was $1.62 per burger, coupled with the whole wheat rolls at $3.00/12 totaling .36 each…. It’s a $1.98 burger! That’s affordable, AND it didn’t come in a Styrofoam carton, shipped from out west, raised on genetically modified/pesticide-laced grain. I can see the cows roaming in the fields behind the store. Go to a restaurant and ask for organic, locally-raised grass fed beef and it will likely cost upwards of $5.00, conservatively figuring. Even hubby's favored $1.00 McDonalds burgers aren’t that less in price to the grass-fed burger given you get a little more meat, nutrition, and a benefit to the environment. I hope hubby reads this. He’s still balking at $6.48 per pound, but it WAS good, and it IS affordable!