How to Spend to Save...the Planet

If you want the simple truth, your food choices make a difference to the health of the planet and all its inhabitants. Take our Gyro-Style Lamb with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce over Quinoa recipe, for example. Here’s how you can save so much more than money by shopping for the ingredients at our stores.

  • Value Guru
  • April 14, 2010

If you want the simple truth, your food choices make a difference to the health of the planet and all its inhabitants. Take our Gyro-Style Lamb with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce over Quinoa opens in a new tab recipe, for example. Here’s how you can save so much more than money by shopping for the ingredients at our stores.Whole Foods Market® Lamb

Gyrostyle Lamb

Our standards opens in a new tab require that the lamb we offer comes from sheep that are vegetarian fed with no added hormones and no antibiotics, ever. Our leg of lamb usually costs only about $1.00 more per pound than lamb not subject to standards that help keep drugs out of the food system and provide for a more natural way of life for the animals. Not baaaad, eh?Organic GarlicWhen you choose organic fresh garlic for this recipe it will cost you only pennies more than if you chose conventional. That little difference supports organic farming opens in a new tab, which increases the land’s productivity, helps protect our water resources and limits toxic and long-lasting chemicals in our environment.

Quinoa
365 Everyday Value® Organic QuinoaQuinoa is a whole grain opens in a new tab, and compared to highly processed foods, eating foods in their most whole state requires fewer natural resources in processing—and often packaging. On the other hand, you get much more nutritional bang for your buck! Each serving of quinoa is highly nutritious, yet costs only about a third more than a serving of a popular brand of instant white rice.365 Everyday Value® YogurtAdministering synthetic growth hormones to dairy cows can increase milk yield, thus reducing the cost of products made from that milk, such as yogurt. If you don’t want yogurt from cows given hormones (rBST), you may or may not—depending on the brand—pay a few cents more, but you’re also making for a healthier, more natural existence for the cows! (Ours is that kind of happy-cow yogurt.)365 Everyday Value® Extra Virgin Olive OilUsing solvents to extract oils from olives and other sources was a cost-saving invention, but one that involves chemicals that may be harmful to bodies and air quality. Extra-virgin olive oil is always mechanically or “expeller” pressed instead, which means you might have to invest a bit more for it. It sure tastes better when you consider the alternative, though, doesn’t it? And our brand actually costs the same or less!Check out The Whole Deal opens in a new tab, online and in stores, for more ways to shop smart and save money. Plus, you’ll find online coupons, simple spring recipes and a week’s worth of easy meal ideas for 1, 2, or 4.We’d love to hear your tips for saving on groceries without scrimping on your values.

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