Amid rising food prices, some skip grocery store to buy from local farmers

MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — If you’ve been to the grocery store recently, you may have noticed the increase in some essential items like meat, eggs, milk and more. With inflation on the rise, you might be searching for other alternatives to do your grocery shopping.

“They’re able to go ‘Hey, so you’re the farmer’ and I go ‘Yes, it was born and raised on my farm, the mommas are still here,’ and they go ‘Great, so you know exactly how it was raised’ and I say ‘Yes, we know almost down to the blade of grass that it had, we know, we were there,'” said Andrew Donnell.

Donnell is a farmer with Donnell Century Farm, and with the rise of food prices, he’s starting to see more people buy from local farmers.

“The great part of buying from a farmer is if they grew it, they don’t have to charge you sales tax, because it’s an agriculture commodity just like a bushel of corn,” Donnell said. “If you want to buy a bushel of corn, we can sell you a bushel of corn at no tax.”

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, food prices rose nearly 9.5% last month and meat costs are about 20% more than they were in 2021.

“I say we’re very comparable, very close, some stuff we’re probably cheaper on and other we’re right there,” Donnell said. “My goal is to have it similar to the grocery store, but also to serve a higher quality product.”

Donnell Century Farm sells, beef, pork, eggs, and a variety of vegetables.

“This is vacuum sealed and you can look and see the marbling in there, this is not what you’re going to find at the grocery store, even our local butchers, I mean you’re going to have to find it straight from a farm,” said Donnell.

Donnell Century Farm is located in northeast Madison County at 3720 Highway 70 East in Jackson. For more information, click here or call them at (731) 424-4526.

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