Australia: Growing your own food and foraging can help tackle your ballooning grocery bill. Here’s how
The largest edible weeds and foraging Facebook group in Australia has almost 90,000 people.
By Kate Neale
The Conversation
Oct 26, 2023
Excerpt:
Up to 3.7 million Australian households have been hit by food insecurity this year – many for the first time.
Of these households, four in five say the reason is the rising cost of living, as interest rate rises and many other cost increases force them to make unwelcome trade-offs – such as food.
These figures come from a new hunger survey from Foodbank, which found almost half of us (48%) now feel anxious about putting food on the table or struggle to access food consistently. About 70% of those polled said rising food prices were a reason for their food insecurity and 48% reported cutting back on buying fresh food.
Cutting back on food waste helps control costs. But what about growing your own food – is that financially sensible? Yes, to a degree. It’s generally not feasible to grow enough food to support yourself. But done cleverly and cheaply, you can cut your food bills with fresh greens, vegetables, herbs and even by foraging.
