Unnatural organic
Don't look now, but there goes an organic cabbage wrapped in plastic. 
As its pesticide- and synthetic-fertilizer-supported brethren were not.
The hypocrisy and oxymoronic-ness of some parties who promote and/or sell organic foods astounds me. Packaging is only one of the aspects where the ridiculous may be found. In the past I've also bought Roundy's organic free-range eggs from Copps that came in a TRIPLE-layered plastic carton, unlike normal eggs that come in recycled cardboard. Are these free-range hens calcium-deficient, that their eggs must be sold in armour?
Another example of packaging madness committed by a store involves Whole Foods itself. I bought fresh salmon burgers from them and observed the counter worker wrap them in something that looked like newspaper, just like in the wet markets back home. Only it turned out to be not newspaper going into a second career, but the same plastic-coated paper normal groceries use, but printed with a fake newspaper design in an incredibly lame attempt to look retro. There goeth the holy and virtuous Whole Foods, wasting energy and ink - not that the cosmetic is going to make shoppers in 21st century Wisconsin feel like they're in 1900s Boston.
A couple of years ago when Wal-Mart announced that it was going to carry organic goods, environmentalists on Treehugger and other websites sneered at this rather than acknowledging it was a step in the right direction. Granted, Wal-Mart is well-known for unethical practices, but at least it's making healthier food available to ordinary consumers, in addition to forcing some of its suppliers to be more environmentally friendly. I've quite happy that the Wisconsin chain where I usually shop, has organic veggies at prices not much more than regular (although I can't say the same for their eggs).
The sort of snobbery displayed by the people mentioned above outrages me. Guess what, wankers: organic farming is NOT going to save the world UNLESS it can be made affordable and accessible to ordinary people with pressing demands on their time and money. Not just a) the wealthy elite for whom environmentalism is a fashion and b) the true hardcore environmentalists who are willing to sacrifice a normal lifestyle to be AGAP (As Green As Possible).
According to my boss, Whole Foods is nicknamed "Whole Check" because that's what it takes to do your shopping there. Screw them and their seven-dollar squashes, I'm getting my organic stuff from Copps.
Labels: environment, food, stupid
posted by xenobiologista @ 19:22
2 Comments:
It's a shame they didn't put the plastic-wrapped cabbage in a styrofoam box to protect the cabbage from damage.
It's packaging like this that makes me appreciate cheeseburger in a can all the more.
i don't think being better for the environment is the main point of "organic food"... certainly it might be better for you, without the pesticide and hormones and antibiotics and whatnot.
unconfirmed statistic comes to mind which i read somewhere, that organic food has an environment cost ~40% more than intensively farmed food. (in terms of environmental impact - more water, more energy, more everything). On the upside, we leech less pesticides into the environment, but the cost of that is hard to quantify - it is a cost, but it has to be balanced against the other costs. sure it is more "sustainable" in that as long as we have the water, energy, diesel, and labour to keep putting into the farm we can keep doing it, but those resources aren't exactly infinite either.
no idea if the ~40% figure is accurate, but it looks to make sense - for any given plot of land, if you're doing it organic, total output is going to be lower by some degree, and the degree of difficulty increases (requiring crop rotations, manure maintenance / production / transport, losses due to pests, significantly slower growth due to not using antibiotics / hormones, non genetically modified foods) on essentially the same cost base. feed through the effect of the number of workers you need, and flow through the resources you need to support them at the farm.
it makes organic foods a luxury food item like ipods versus generic mp3 players, in which case the companies frequently upgrade their packaging as part of their whole marketing appeal. instant and very visual brand differentiation is probably crucial for organic food to sell, as their "look" could possibly be worse than the other produce on the rack which costs half as much. (less green, smaller, more ragged, etc)
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