How much do fruits & vegetables cost?
Cost, like affordability, is an idea that admits many possibilities. Examining food prices high-lights the range of possible ways to think about costs. Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle and at research institutes in France have compared prices for fruit and vegetables with prices for other foods on both a per calorie and per nutrient basis. They found that fruit and vegetables are relatively expensive per calorie, but relatively inexpensive per nutrient. In principle, food costs could be measured in terms of any of the needs consumers are trying to fill by purchasing particular foods. Sometimes their choices are made to fill caloric needs, sometimes to fill nutritional needs. But taste and convenience have to be satisfied, too. The many attributes that food manufacturers advertise indicate the numerous dimensions along which consumers make choices. If consumers were concerned only with calories or, for instance, calcium intake, their behavior would look very differ
