Fast food is cheap, but an Associated Press story that moved on the wire yesterday offered help for eating "slower food" on a budget. AP reporter Michelle Locke Ho opened her story by making examples of two slow-food products: $20 handcrafted cheese and $100 free-range turkey. She talked to UC Davis food systems analyst Gail Feenstra about what appears to be a pricy trend.

"It's been sort of touted as being an upper-income thing, which is unfortunate because that is not the bottom line," Feenstra was quoted. "The slow food movement needs to be about everybody having access to good quality food."

The story was organized into five sections, each with suggestions for cutting the cost of "slow food."

• Do the math and think big
• Organize to localize
• Be a bargain hunter, gatherer
• Get green at the grocery
• Timing is everything

For the "organize to localize" section, Locke Ho spoke to UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor Cathi Lamp of Tulare County. Lamp said a lack of large grocery stores and farmers markets in rural areas can be overcome with community organization.

"In one community too small to support a full market, parents are helping run a vegetable stand once a week at an elementary school," Lamp was paraphrased.