New Age Cynicism

Please understand from the outset of this essay that I am totally in support of organic, local, and fair trade. I even work in the sector and have helped advanced the cause in my area. But, and I have a big but here, but how is it that I have a choice between an organic cucumber for $3.99 from Mexico or .89 cents each from Mexico or California or Florida. That means that my organic cuke would cost from 3 to 4 times the conventional one. Now I get that the price of a conventionally grown cuke is held down by mass production, cheap migrant labor, and government subsidies but the disparity is crippling. I can’t afford a $4 cuke no matter what my values are. Now I would be prepared to pay twice as much to ensure I didn’t consume toxic chemicals, pollute the groundwater, pump more greenhouse gases into the ozone, or further the exploitation of poor migrant works, but FOUR TIMES as much is out of my reach.

I’m a ardent believer in eating my food fresh and local rather than shipped from New Zealand – unless of course it’s a banana in which case I would prefer fair trade and organic – but what is with $5.99 for local organic tomatoes from a guy that farms up the road from me and still uses migrant labor? I know - I have been on his farm. Why are organic tomatoes from further away $3.99 or $2.99 a pound in comparison? I personally believe, if I were to pay $6 a pound, someone is ripping me off. And since I know for a fact the mark up at the store I shop at that means Mr. Farmer up the road is actually exploiting my desire to eat locally.

Of course one bad apple doesn’t spoil the whole bushel basket, but it seems to me, particularly after visiting Expo East this year (natural products exposition) that more and more profit-only minded people are muscling into the natural foods market and taking advantage of people who are genuinely concerned for the environment and eating right. It’s becoming big business with the major corporations snapping organic natural labels and even the smaller vendors becoming jaded and greedy. I do understand the rising cost of oil increasing the cost of agricultural and transportation all around but should organic and local be almost immune from the issue of oil costs? After all they aren’t shipping long distances or using petroleum based fertilizers. At a time like this I would have expected organic local foods to drop in price relative to the conventional. It sickens me that it’s going to continue the reverse with everyone wanting the bigger price tag of ‘trendy organic, natural, and local’ labels.

Meanwhile people like me with a limited or low income and no access to my own garden find themselves filling their baskets with conventional foods when their heart belongs to organic.

Thoughts on Old Office Chairs

Walking to work this morning I noticed a couple office chairs parked up on the curb. I was contemplating nabbing one or two (great for the studio!) but I was going the wrong direction and had no place to stash them all day. I gazed longingly at the chairs as I reluctantly moved past without snatching. I was wondering what was wrong with them they needed to be thrown out. The answer was blindingly obvious: the fabric had worn under the knees and was now showing off the foam padding. This is the normal place for such chairs to wear and in every other way they looked entirely serviceable.

It occurred to me that nothing in the world would be easier than for the manufacturer to add some reinforcement to that part of the seat. Then, just as quickly, it occurred to me that no modern manufacturer would do that. Why not? Because they want stuff to wear out and be thrown away so you’ll buy a new one. I would bet you good money that they even research the exact length of time it’s acceptable to the consumer that a product wears out within so that they still buy the manufacturer’s crappy-built-to-be-redundant-quickly products.

Remember when ever town had a machine shop where you could take things like the toaster for repair? Can you even imagine doing so today? And of course there were cobblers. I loved the cobblers. You didn’t just throw away your shoes when you got a hole in the heel – you had them repaired! These days it just costs more to have something repaired than the thing is worth… BECAUSE they are made to be cheap and disposable. We, as consumers, are programmed to prefer the low price points and assume we’re getting better value and stretching our dollar. But once you bought something ONCE in your life, not every three years or less. Count up the amount of times you had to fork out for a toaster, total up the cost. Bet you one in good materials guaranteed to last would have cost you less in the long run.

I won’t even go into the cost to the environment and landfill we are paying so that we can buy cheap disposable goods.

Anyone reading this I’m probably preaching to the choir – particularly to those who are proponents of HANDMADE excellence like all my Etsy friends, but I just want to add that I’m as guilty as everyone else. I’m trying to change my ways and buy good quality stuff that will last and last, even if I have to start with the small ticket items and do without for other things. It’s not easy being green as beloved Kermit told us so many years ago (how psychic was that?).