Posted on 06/04/2006 11:08:53 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart, the bane of all limousine liberals and aging hippies, has entered the "crunchy granola" market:
Beginning later this year, Wal-Mart plans to roll out a complete selection of organic foods — food certified by the U.S.D.A. to have been grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers — in its nearly 4,000 stores. Just as significant, the company says it will price all this organic food at an eye-poppingly tiny premium over its already-cheap conventional food: the organic Cocoa Puffs and Oreos will cost only 10 percent more than the conventional kind. Organic food will soon be available to the tens of millions of Americans who now cannot afford it — indeed, who have little or no idea what the term even means. Organic food, which represents merely 2.5 percent of America's half-trillion-dollar food economy, is about to go mainstream.
With organic food about to become as "mainstream" and "middle America" as Ford Explorers, Kraft singles and "American Idol," how long before the so-called "elites" find it no longer has the same "counterculture" appeal as Volvos, brie and NPR?
That would nicely explain the gamey cherry flavor in a few cabernet's I've tried from Sonoma.
That is the funniest commercial. Especially when he orders the "Roast Duck with Mango Salsa" kills me everytime I see it.
I figured as much.
So what is the attraction about mail-order meat places like Allen Brothers, Omaha Steaks or other such businesses? I know I can tell the difference in the quality of meat when I go to a Lone Star chain and the original Smith & Wallensky's in Manhattan. How can I be certain that what I'm ordering really is a better quality?
I don't think it is necessary a "liberal" thing to eat organic food. Broken clocks are right twice a day and people who say that organic food is good for you are in fact right. As a matter of preference, I have no problem driving halfway across town to the organic market and paying more because I know I'm getting what I pay for. At our house, we now buy almost all of our meat and a majority of our vegetables at the Fresh Market. For things such as beer, chips, and other products which really don't vary from store to store, there's still Food World.
To tell you the truth, I'm willing to pay extra money for meat when I know that the animals were not shot up with growth hormones during their lives, and I'm much more willing to eat produce, even if more costly, which I know has not had some genetic engineer screwing around with it's DNA. At first I was skeptical about this organic food mess, but my in-laws turned me on to it, and I must say, I did feel better and more energetic then I have before.
I applaud Wal-Mart for their decision to start carrying organic food. Doesn't mean I'm going to buy it from them, but I do think it's better for you, and the more people you get to at least it, the better off we are. You know, when you hunt, kill the animal and bring it home, by theory, you're eating organic food, because the deer I assume, has not been shot up with growth hormone, and he's eaten natural food. The same for fish that you catch, scale then cook. For the same reasons that I like to eat venison I like to eat food from the organic market. I don't think that makes me uppity, or liberal or anything else, it's just a personal preference.
Organic is more labor intensive and less likely to be automated then any other type of farming.
"As always, it will be up to the consumer to do their homework. I love Whole Foods, except here in Boca, it has the rudest clientele of any store I think I have ever been in (including Walmart!)
Used to love to shop at the one in Plano (TX).
susie"
Uh, Boca, is kinda like that everywhere, isn't it? At least the last time I was there, lol. Pretty place, but quite the attitude.
Well, for a quick lesson in meats science, the carcasses as they leave the packing house are about all the same. All good, healthy, young, well fed cattle. Grocery chains buy the meat and take delivery of it 2 days after it is killed and chunk it up and sell it and so forth.
The upper shelf eateries, buy the sides of meat and then put them in cool storage for a period of time that may run from 7 to 21 days or more and they let the meat age. As it ages, the natural enzymes in the muscle are released and they develop the flavor and tenderness of the cuts. The carcass has to be left somewhat intact for this to happen because if it is chunked up before it is aged, the muscle tissue will pull up short and that is where it becomes tough. Being Angus beef has essentially no influence on this process. Once the meat is aged, it may be marinated in their secret formula and then grilled for your eating enjoyment. It is the care and love given the care of the carcass after butchering, not the breed that makes the difference. The lower priced joints, buy the packaged meat and chunk it and serve it without aging it. That's the difference.
Enjoy
Agree. Real organic food people wouldn't be caught dead in Wal-Mart.
Whole Foods Market was very busy today! It's the place to be "seen".
Dump WMT, buy WFMI. :)-
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FMCDH(BITS)
Organic farming and ranching is nothing new.
It is the way American Farmers used to farm and raise poultry and livestock more than 50 years ago.
So it is not a fad, it is a rebirth of traditional methods of farming.
I would like to see the single family farms come back and edge out corporate farms. There are places where this is happening and organic is the movement that helps the small farmer. For example as an organic basil or lettuce farmer, you can contract sell a whole years harvest to a coop of local restaurants. Organic produce, when farmed well, is tastier and texturally more pleasing to the palate than massed produced produce.
Small farms also have a beneficial social effect. It makes people more conservative in their political views and it teaches the young the value of hard work.
We got Omaha Steaks as a gift. Even the dog refused it. Really BAD meat.
Wonder Bread (which is neither...) sucks.
Even as a kid, I hated white bread. When my mom would by "Roman Meal" it was a special treat.
I only eat it now with hotdogs.
We enter a day when organic foods become mainstream, and those who eat what they eat to be righteous will find a way to differentiate what they eat from what the masses eat.
I shop sometimes at organic type food stores. I have some products I really like, and they sell some stuff in bulk.
I know what A. Pole means about good bread. I've baked my own from time to time, (but I do often use more elaborate recipes than the one recommended, occasionally including things like milk or eggs or chopped nuts or other good stuff).
But there are people who are unhappy that these things might be going mainstream. Why?
Interesting the psychology of that particular tidbit.
I don't know, but you're right.
Somehow, there are people who have convinced themselves that if they do anything that liberals have ever done, they'll be contaminated or have to admit that the libs were right.
As if liberals were the ones who invented pesticide-free food. Please.
Walmart is trying to go a bit upscale. I bought some 400 count sheets there the other day. Very nice.
You are certainly right about crows. One time, I saw about ten up in an oak tree. They were raising a ruckus that would've woke the dead. One, in particular, was just about going bonkers, screaching and chattering and flying around.
Then I spied the dead crow on the ground. I think the really excited one in the tree was the mate.
Crows are VERY intelligent birds.
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