What’s Up With the High Cost of Peanut Butter? — Supermarket Savvy
5 Comments | Written on March 5, 2012 at 9:00 am, by Rachel Achmad
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March is National Peanut Month — it even began with National Peanut Butter Lover’s Day on March 1. But my family essentially celebrates the peanut all the time. My picky kids eat peanut butter sandwiches for lunch daily (I’m ever grateful we aren’t at a peanut-free school), and my husband’s favorite candy is the revered peanut butter cup.
Unfortunately for us (and all the other peanut lovers out there), last year’s peanut harvest was one of the worst in history. Peanut farms in both the United States and Senegal were hit hard by drought, and peanut prices have begun to climb.
On my last shopping trip, I noted that a 16-oz. jar of our favorite brand of peanut butter had jumped almost a dollar in price. Since my family eats the stuff too fast for me to amass a stockpile, I visited Peanut Free Planet to scope out some potential peanut butter substitutes. I discovered peabutter, sunbutter and soybutter, and I grabbed my trusty calculator to compare costs.
Even with the higher price we’re now paying, none ended up cheaper than peanut butter. My usual peanut butter now sells for 25 cents per ounce. Peabutter, made from brown peas, was 44 cents per ounce, while sunbutter, made from sunflower seeds, was 33 cents per ounce. But soybutter — sometimes sold under the brand name “Wowbutter” — wasn’t that much more expensive than the peanut butter I buy, clocking in at 28 cents per ounce.
I then checked with several families who rely on substitutes due to nut allergies to find out what their taste verdicts were. Everyone agreed that nothing tastes quite like the real deal, but that sunbutter was the most passable substitute.
So at least for now, my family will continue to get our peanut fix — but we may start introducing some sunbutter to our children’s picky palates, just in case the price of peanut butter continues to climb.
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Save Money, Save Time | Tags: Dips and Spreads, Lunch, Lunch Sandwiches, Quick and Easy, Quick and Easy Dishes for Kids
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5 Responses to “What’s Up With the High Cost of Peanut Butter? — Supermarket Savvy”
This is a wonderful entry, you made it enjoyable to read.
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Sorry, but costs on our beloved peanut butter went higher because the weather ruined so much of the peanut crops. But, what never makes sense to me is raising the costs, and those of us who can’t afford the higher price, don’t buy, so the jars sit on the shelves…wouldn’t it make more sense to leave the price alone and if the supply sells out….then we go for a substitute, seems a waste the other way.
The price has been going up steady I believe also due to demand! Anyway, what I do as I am working through converting the fam. onto something new is gradually convert, slowly substitute the new for the old. So perhaps mixing in some peanutbutter into the “sunbutter” increasing say once a week, the amt. of sunbutter, your family will never notice they’ve been converted inside say a month? I have done that with whole wheat flour and tea (from reg. to decaf, to decaf green, and very little sugar now). Good luck.
Thanks Mary! Yes these things do sometimes require trickery, don’t they.
Thanks for reading and commenting!