{"id":13854,"date":"2022-10-17T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-17T07:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forkranger.com\/?p=13854"},"modified":"2025-03-24T13:45:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T13:45:38","slug":"the-surprising-cost-of-a-sustainable-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-wp.cowdev.com\/de\/blog\/the-surprising-cost-of-a-sustainable-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating sustainably on a budget: is it possible?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Main learning:<\/strong> you can eat more sustainable without spending more than you do now
Goal:<\/strong> eat more nuts (affordable in bulk, and check which ones as prices differ a lot) and legumes (almost always affordable) instead of meat and dairy alternatives
Impact:<\/strong> Very High<\/mark><\/strong> \ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0d\ud83c\udf0d because many people probably wouldn’t even get started without this insight (see full Compass<\/span><\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Discover sustainable recipes that aren\u2019t more expensive (than regular ones) in our Fork Ranger Buches<\/span><\/a>. Simple, tasty and affordable at the same time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainable isn\u2019t necessarily more expensive<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A transition to a more sustainable food system only works, if it\u2019s available to all. Therefore it\u2019s important that a sustainable diet is an affordable diet. And actually this is exactly of the main issues: people think<\/em> that it\u2019s expensive. According to an EU study<\/a> it\u2019s even the number one reason that prevents people from eating (more) sustainably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A sustainable diet consists of less meat and dairy and more vegetables, legumes and nuts. Therefore a good starting point would be to have a look at the cost of vegetarian and vegan diets. An Oxford study<\/a> compared the costs of different diets. They found that in high and upper middle countries flexitarian, vegetarian and vegan diets had lower costs than the current diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about organic?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The perception that sustainable is expensive might come from the fact that organic products come to mind immediately. This makes sense. In 2019 the Consumentenbond<\/a> (a Dutch Consumers Association) checked prices of supermarkets\u2019 own products, premium products and organic products. While organic products cost on average<\/em> 63% more than supermarkets\u2019 own products, supermarkets\u2019 own organic products sometimes also cost less than premium products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a consumer you can make the biggest impact in terms of CO2-reduction by focussing first on was<\/em> is on your plate, and only secondly on wie<\/em> that food is produced. Therefore, don\u2019t worry about organic products until you\u2019ve taken the first steps. Have a look at our compass<\/a> to see what comes first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our recipes have lower costs than we thought<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Okay, enough theory. How does this apply to our recipes? Now that we know sustainable diets are in general affordable, we felt the moral obligation to calculate our recipes\u2019 cost. This is at the core of what we do: making it as easy as possible to transition to a sustainable diet. And recipes help a lot with that. So also their impact on you wallet should be minimized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were actually really surprised by the results. The majority of our recipes – more than 80% – are actually below 2,50 eur per portion. This is also in line with what NIBUD<\/a> recommends in terms of budgeting your warm meal (2,34 EUR). And for these calculations we haven\u2019t even optimised buying in bulk and what\u2019s discounted, going to the cheapest (super)market, and cooking for multiple days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We\u2019ve also looked into what made certain recipes more expensive than others. Is it really the case that vegetables are the expensive part? There is some truth in this. Vegetables do make up the largest part of our recipes in terms of cost. However, there are also large differences among recipes and it is hard to recognize the cost directly from the recipe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also found that legumes and nuts never make up the majority of the cost of a recipe. Legumes are in fact really cheap. Nuts have a reputation for being expensive, but if you buy them in bulk and buy the more common ones, costs aren\u2019t high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What really made some recipes expensive are more \u2018special\u2019 ingredients. These could easily be exchanged for more common ones or left out. Instead of ravioli and gnocchi, choose other kinds of pasta. Naan bread and fresh bread are welcome additions but could be left out. And fresh herbs are a luxury, given that dried herbs could also be used. Other recipes also simply have expensive ingredients like avocado or jackfruit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some tips for recipe selection and the supermarket<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n