5 ms·

I guess the moral of the story is that if we want affordable food, we should eat local. It seems like half of the costs to the restaurant are associated with sh

by hristov 12y ago

I guess the moral of the story is that if we want affordable food, we should eat local. It seems like half of the costs to the restaurant are associated with shipping the lobster alive.

munificent 12y ago
> we should eat local. What I found interesting was that the economics are affected by both spatial and temporal locality. The part about holding tanks that could keep lobsters alive for months to sell them out of season when prices were higher is a good reminder that eating seasonally can be as import for affordability as eating locally.
- rdtsc 12y ago
  Exactly. My relatives have a business where they basically keep food in storage until it is out of season then sell it. It can be locally grown or imported. It depends on the client. Some buy in bulk from local farmers, keep it (paying storage costs) then sell later.
  - avighnay 12y ago
    I am not sure about other places but here in India, this is termed as 'hoarding' and is illegal, however not that it has made that model non existant
anon4 12y ago
Would there then be a market for canned/frozen/otherwise preserved lobster? So one could set up a factory right on the shore, buy lobster at 2-4$/pound, then immediately cook it and have it ready to ship in inexpensive ways?
jakejake 12y ago
(Edit my math was a little off since the article was talking about expenses per pound for the middle men, but total cost at the restaurant) Anyway, I think the markup at the restaurant is the highest. Maybe on the coast you can get a 2 lb lobster for $30, but that would be a ridiculously low price elsewhere. A steakhouse I went to last week in Nashville was charging $160 for a one pound lobster! I actually found the middle-men involved to have a reasonable markup on the product. The price really gets jacked up at the restaurant where they have all of the overhead to cover. So the moral to me is to cook your own food!
cbd1984 12y ago
Try to eat local in eastern Montana in January. Wheat stores well, and beef doesn't store terribly badly, but... well, that's about it, and that is kind of a problem for humans, who need a more diverse diet than wheat and beef. We can grow small amounts of other food, but not enough to make much of a difference.
carlob 12y ago
It really depends, for example out-of-season local tomatoes grown in a greenhouse in norther Europe are much more energy-unefficient than shipping them from Morocco. On the other hand, I remember buying live lobsters between $5 and $8 a pound in a Boston grocery store. According to this article that would be a very small markup (and maybe sometimes lobsters were a loss leader).

by hristov 12y ago

I guess the moral of the story is that if we want affordable food, we should eat local. It seems like half of the costs to the restaurant are associated with shipping the lobster alive.

munificent 12y ago

> we should eat local. What I found interesting was that the economics are affected by both spatial and temporal locality. The part about holding tanks that could keep lobsters alive for months to sell them out of season when prices were higher is a good reminder that eating seasonally can be as import for affordability as eating locally.

rdtsc 12y ago
Exactly. My relatives have a business where they basically keep food in storage until it is out of season then sell it. It can be locally grown or imported. It depends on the client. Some buy in bulk from local farmers, keep it (paying storage costs) then sell later.
- avighnay 12y ago
  I am not sure about other places but here in India, this is termed as 'hoarding' and is illegal, however not that it has made that model non existant

anon4 12y ago

Would there then be a market for canned/frozen/otherwise preserved lobster? So one could set up a factory right on the shore, buy lobster at 2-4$/pound, then immediately cook it and have it ready to ship in inexpensive ways?

jakejake 12y ago

(Edit my math was a little off since the article was talking about expenses per pound for the middle men, but total cost at the restaurant) Anyway, I think the markup at the restaurant is the highest. Maybe on the coast you can get a 2 lb lobster for $30, but that would be a ridiculously low price elsewhere. A steakhouse I went to last week in Nashville was charging $160 for a one pound lobster! I actually found the middle-men involved to have a reasonable markup on the product. The price really gets jacked up at the restaurant where they have all of the overhead to cover. So the moral to me is to cook your own food!

cbd1984 12y ago

Try to eat local in eastern Montana in January. Wheat stores well, and beef doesn't store terribly badly, but... well, that's about it, and that is kind of a problem for humans, who need a more diverse diet than wheat and beef. We can grow small amounts of other food, but not enough to make much of a difference.

carlob 12y ago

It really depends, for example out-of-season local tomatoes grown in a greenhouse in norther Europe are much more energy-unefficient than shipping them from Morocco. On the other hand, I remember buying live lobsters between $5 and $8 a pound in a Boston grocery store. According to this article that would be a very small markup (and maybe sometimes lobsters were a loss leader).