Mean Girl Manifesto #1
I finally figured out what I want to write about! (Go me.) I cringe and get annoyed constantly at things I see and rather than boring my immediate family of choice over it I can BORE MY FRIENDS TOO! This Internet, it is awesome.
Today's topic of the Mean Girl Manifesto is "Why I Don't Buy Organic And Stop Trying To Make Me Feel Guilty Over It". You may recognize the feeling I had when I went to Whole Paychec. . .Whole Foods and did some shopping. "Wow, this is the most expensive apple/juice/butter/sausage I've seen in a grocery store ever!" I have news for all the smug people who like to tell others that they're eating poisonous crap and ruining the environment; SHUT UP. Really. Random people in grocery stores don't want or need lectures on their food. If food is your moral crusade then make like St. Francis of Assisi and "preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."
Not everyone can afford to spend $2.49 for a pound of organic apples. Many people have seen their food costs escalate in the past 2 years and spending more for less doesn't make a personal bottom line better. If you're really interested in making the world a better place buy cheaper food and donate the difference between what you might have spent at a more expensive store and what you actually spent to a charity that you believe makes the world better. It won't be an insignificant amount. Trust me, you'll notice. If you haven't realized why obesity is linked to poverty now is an excellent time to educate yourself on terms like "calorifically-dense foods" and "subsidized farming". Trying to make people spend more on food when they don't want to/can't afford it is not going to work. The soft drink industry has run up against that one for years on end.
There's also differing views of morality and appropriateness at work. Not all of us who eat meat/gluten/fish/Oreos have your particular moral stance. I respect your right to not participate in buying or consuming things that you find morally abhorrent; however, that doesn't give you authority over my steak. If you're really butt-hurt over this then go do something useful like agitate those who can do something about it. Start a petition, nag your local lawmaker, write letters to Tyson Foods, whatever. Don't bother me about it. I didn't start whatever it is you're unhappy about and I'm not in a position to stop it.
Besides, some of us LIKE THAT STUFF. You may not and that's fine. You may choose not to eat pastuerized processed imitation cheese food product and Red Dye #42 as part of your diet but stop trying to remove it from mine. While my cheese-injected hot dogs may contain so much fat my arteries spontaneously harden in protest the USDA says they're safe from known toxins or they're within allowable amounts. I'll put that big government agency up any day against your woo-woo "I want to believe" crap. Go do some double-blind rigorous testing and then get back to me. Until it's proven harmful by an agency I respect or trust (and you aren't that agency, sorry) I'm gonna consume it if I want to. I don't prevent you from your $6 per stalk asparagus, after all and that stuff turns your urine GREEN! That *can't* be good.
I also have a need to call "bullshit" on some of the claims that proponents of organic farming make. Organic foods aren't more nutritious than non-organic. Organic food isn't demonstrably safer in regards to pesticides than non-organic food. Taste is influenced far more by freshness than almost any other factor and is individual enough where it's very difficult to measure in a quantitative manner. About the only thing I can see that people are paying for is a hope that the higher price encourages "better" farming techniques. This assumes that the higher price you pay for that organic milk actually translates into more money for the owner of the cows. Even if it does that's not much. Organic food-raising techniques represent incredibly little of the world food production.
I believe organic farming and animal-raising techniques have value and are worth pursuing. The advantages to preserving biodiversity are well-established and I think this is worth supporting. There are other goals too that are laudable that are supported by organic food raising methods including employing local populations that can't find better jobs. Using organic foods as a shaming device to those less "evolved" doesn't work and doesn't help. Unless you define "help" as being randomly rude to the fattie in the chips aisle at your local grocer.
Today's topic of the Mean Girl Manifesto is "Why I Don't Buy Organic And Stop Trying To Make Me Feel Guilty Over It". You may recognize the feeling I had when I went to Whole Paychec. . .Whole Foods and did some shopping. "Wow, this is the most expensive apple/juice/butter/sausage I've seen in a grocery store ever!" I have news for all the smug people who like to tell others that they're eating poisonous crap and ruining the environment; SHUT UP. Really. Random people in grocery stores don't want or need lectures on their food. If food is your moral crusade then make like St. Francis of Assisi and "preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."
Not everyone can afford to spend $2.49 for a pound of organic apples. Many people have seen their food costs escalate in the past 2 years and spending more for less doesn't make a personal bottom line better. If you're really interested in making the world a better place buy cheaper food and donate the difference between what you might have spent at a more expensive store and what you actually spent to a charity that you believe makes the world better. It won't be an insignificant amount. Trust me, you'll notice. If you haven't realized why obesity is linked to poverty now is an excellent time to educate yourself on terms like "calorifically-dense foods" and "subsidized farming". Trying to make people spend more on food when they don't want to/can't afford it is not going to work. The soft drink industry has run up against that one for years on end.
There's also differing views of morality and appropriateness at work. Not all of us who eat meat/gluten/fish/Oreos have your particular moral stance. I respect your right to not participate in buying or consuming things that you find morally abhorrent; however, that doesn't give you authority over my steak. If you're really butt-hurt over this then go do something useful like agitate those who can do something about it. Start a petition, nag your local lawmaker, write letters to Tyson Foods, whatever. Don't bother me about it. I didn't start whatever it is you're unhappy about and I'm not in a position to stop it.
Besides, some of us LIKE THAT STUFF. You may not and that's fine. You may choose not to eat pastuerized processed imitation cheese food product and Red Dye #42 as part of your diet but stop trying to remove it from mine. While my cheese-injected hot dogs may contain so much fat my arteries spontaneously harden in protest the USDA says they're safe from known toxins or they're within allowable amounts. I'll put that big government agency up any day against your woo-woo "I want to believe" crap. Go do some double-blind rigorous testing and then get back to me. Until it's proven harmful by an agency I respect or trust (and you aren't that agency, sorry) I'm gonna consume it if I want to. I don't prevent you from your $6 per stalk asparagus, after all and that stuff turns your urine GREEN! That *can't* be good.
I also have a need to call "bullshit" on some of the claims that proponents of organic farming make. Organic foods aren't more nutritious than non-organic. Organic food isn't demonstrably safer in regards to pesticides than non-organic food. Taste is influenced far more by freshness than almost any other factor and is individual enough where it's very difficult to measure in a quantitative manner. About the only thing I can see that people are paying for is a hope that the higher price encourages "better" farming techniques. This assumes that the higher price you pay for that organic milk actually translates into more money for the owner of the cows. Even if it does that's not much. Organic food-raising techniques represent incredibly little of the world food production.
I believe organic farming and animal-raising techniques have value and are worth pursuing. The advantages to preserving biodiversity are well-established and I think this is worth supporting. There are other goals too that are laudable that are supported by organic food raising methods including employing local populations that can't find better jobs. Using organic foods as a shaming device to those less "evolved" doesn't work and doesn't help. Unless you define "help" as being randomly rude to the fattie in the chips aisle at your local grocer.