Drought Shopping Tips

In the next few weeks, drought will become a reality when doing the weekly grocery shopping to feed our families. When making decisions to get more bang for your buck, it's important to choose nutrient dense foods like dairy. Dairy foods are an economical choice and play a critical role in the diets of adults and children by providing nine essential nutrients,including calcium,magnesium,
potassium and phosphorus, in addition to 48 percent daily value of protein.

The ultimate goal of all dairy farmers is to provide safe,nutritious milk regardless if it is produced by conventional or organic production methods. It's a common misperception that some milk contains antibiotic. An important fact to know when purchasing milk is that there are NO ANTIBIOTICS in  MILK.It is illegal for any milk to be sold that has any antibiotic or medication. Milk is the safest food that you can buy because of the strict quality controls to ensure freshness,purity, and great taste. Information about milk production and comparison of organic and conventional production methods can be found at http://www.midwestdairy.com.

When stretching your food dollar, make a plan that includes these tips from the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension (http://www.uaex.edu):

• Set a spending limit
• Plan menus and use them to make your grocery list
• Read sale advertisement and use them to plan menus and grocery list
• Make a shopping list and stick to it
• Eat before shopping
• Clip coupons for items you know you'll use
• Try store brands
• Compare stores
• Take advantage of special discounts like senior discounts or double coupon days
• Choose your best day to shop-some stores have sales on specificd days
• Compare forms and buy the form of food that costs less for each serving
• Compare sizes and buy the size that costs less for each serving