Eating grass can Save you cash?

The economic principle I’m exploring is “institutions influence the ‘rules of the game’” My research question to help me study the economic principle is “how does one economic class determine if they will become a vegetarian or vegan” The article published in time magazine online titled “here’s how much vegetarians save each year” demonstrates this economic principle because it shows that being vegetarian can be a great way to cut costs, and thus makes the movement more enticing to those of a lower socioeconomic class. First, the article compares two meal plans. One is recommended by the US department of agriculture, the other was a meal plan planned for those who chose to eat a plant based diet. They both had more than the recommended levels of protein intake each day, and they both met the caloric intake needs required. They bought ingredients for both meal plans at an inexpensive grocery brand, Stop & Shop, and bought the cheapest products available there. From this, the researchers found that those eating a plant based diet would be able to save $14.36 a week. Second, the article admits that the plant based diet could have been less expensive, but those who wrote the meal plan chose to include more expensive food products, such as olive oil over canola oil. Because the meat based diet regularly included the cheapest products, this shows how one could save even more money if they chose to cut corners to save money on the plant based diet. Third, the plant based diet was found to be more nutritious. It contained 25 more servings of vegetables, 8 more servings of fruit, and 14 more servings of whole grain. This means that even though the meat based meal plan was more expensive, it was actually less nutritionally In my next blog post I will research: If, in reality, vegetarianism and veganism is a popular choice amongst those who are less well off.