Buzz about living a healthy lifestyle — especially making healthier food choices — is mounting. It's made some people investigate what else is out there besides your run-of-the-mill supermarket food. And sometimes what they find gives them sticker shock.
Take meat, for instance. Some shoppers look for organic beef, others specify they want grass-fed beef, still others insist on buying meat that's free of growth hormones.
Local shop owners say there hasn't been a lot of demand for locally produced options of that sort, though. They speculate it's because of the extra cost that comes with it.
Scott Jellison, owner of The Old Mill in Twelve Mile, said the pork and beef sold there is sourced from a farm practically in the shop's back yard.
And his customers are often interested, at some level, in buying organic or grass-fed meats, Jellison said. "The problem is a lot of them are not willing to pay for it."
The same pound of beef might be $5.50 for grain-fed meat versus $7 for the grass-fed version, he said.
"I think they understand… They want to eat healthy. It's kind of like carrots and anything else — it's vegetables, it's expensive," Jellison added. "…It does cost to eat healthy."
Shops in Logansport have noticed the same trend.
"We have some interest," Andrew Kuns said. "Not gobs. The problem with it, I think, ends up being the price."
Kuns is part of the family that owns Kuns Bakery and Bulk Foods in the heart of Logansport's East End shopping district. The shop advertises naturally fed and Cass County raised Angus beef on a sign near its meat freezer.
However, he's noticed most people looking for some specific options — organic or grass-fed beef instead of grain-fed options, for example — rethink what they want after they research their options.
"They think it sounds like a good idea … but then when they see the price, they think, oh, maybe it's not that important," Kuns said.
He's also unimpressed with the quality and taste of grass-fed or organic and non-genetically modified beef.
"It's not near as good for one thing," Kuns said, "because the grain-fed is what makes the meat better, puts more fat on them and that's what we like, whether people know it or not."
Across town, at D&R Fruit and Meat Market on West Market Street, customers have balked at paying extra for the same cut of meat, too.
Meat manager Charles Jagger noted the cost can be nearly double for a cut of grass-fed beef. A high-quality New York strip might run about $12, he said, while the frozen, grass-fed version is about $25.
He's had little luck selling organic or grass-fed meats, he said, with a few exceptions. But if someone asks for a special meat — say, free-range organic turkeys for Thanksgiving — he'll order a box just to see how sales of it fare, he said. That sold pretty well last year.
Demand for similar meats has increased "little by little" over the last few years, so he'll keep introducing a small amount from time to time to see how works out, he said.
And for a small contingent of customers, he added, price doesn't matter.
"My opinion is, the majority of people that are looking for something like that don't even look at price," Jagger said.