Responsible consumers we should educate ourselves before making decisions about what to eat? (I)
In order to be a responsible consumer first we need to understand the entire background of the industry including how food is produced, how we gain information and how we make decisions. That’s why I am going to attack the food industry a lot, because in this case our breathing space for acting responsible is hardly limited by companies who manufacture these products. However, I do not want to underestimate the role of personal responsibility, so I will speak about this as well.
But first, let’s inspect the out-of-the-box ideas, which we can use to silence our inner moral compass. These ideas are organic foods and free range/cage free farming, local farming and super foods. By the end of this article you may ask: why do I attack companies so much? The reason is that more than 50% we know about food is coming from companies and we need to fix this.
They have numerous ways to sell more food. Beyond the usual strategies, like advertising, they could do more. Like finding specific studies (without the consideration of the quality of said study), which emphasizes the advantages of different products or ingredients, then sponsoring different media like television shows, health magazines or websites to advertise the conclusion of these studies. If they want to go farther, they fund a study, which probably concludes something favorable for them, or even sponsoring a group of scientists for inspiring advantageous results.
So, I don’t say they straight-up lying. At its core most of these ideas/studies make sense. However, in grand scheme of things, what we do is just distorting our eating habits over and over again according to the latest ideas of “healthy living” while not noticing or just simply ignoring the already well known and effective ideas like “eat as much as you need, no more”. So, I try to inspect these ideas in a little more detail.
Theoretically organic is the idea of producing food in “healthy” way. This means producers — in theory — use as less chemicals and medication as possible and creating food in a more traditional way. In case of produce it means cultivating plants without the use of chemicals like fertilizers. Instead of poisoning the earth, they combine certain types of plants which provides protection against pests. In case of livestock, they don’t give them antibiotics, which is required in case of large-scale animal farming, as there are not enough room for the animals, so disease spread easily. And of course, feeding them with organic fodder.
But what organic really is? Just a marketing idea, basically market segmentation. It’s a way how the often-doubled prices are justified for the customer. Nothing else in my opinion. You can understand this, if you try to think as a producer. Let’s see this process.
You make milk. The market of milk is a very competitive one as there are many producers racing for customers. The main element of this fight is competing with price, and this makes both the product cost/price and the quality low in the long term. In this context you cannot realize a hefty margin as nobody would buy your product.
Even if your milk is better than the average. You cannot say your milk is higher quality than the others, because every single one of your rival’s state exactly the same, no matter what’s in the box. But you still need an edge. The solution comes like a lightning. So, the lightbulb turns on in your head: organic milk. Ta-da, now you can put double price on your box, because it is totally different and 100% better like the price suggests.
But this is not the biggest problem with organics because you as consumer can choose whatever you want to buy and eat. The real problem is what advocates of organic food always forget. And that is: there are more than 8 billion people on this planet. If we tried to feed all of them with organic food, either half of the population would starve to death or we would use up every single square feet of land on the planet to produce enough food (or both options). Large-scale food manufacturing is unbeatable when it comes to quantities. So, this is it. Organic food is nothing else now, but a creation of a wealthier customer class, who can afford to pay extra.
The idea behind local farming is simple. Anything we buy to eat should come no farther than 200 miles and we dismiss the chain of middlemen. This is something I can fully support as it makes perfect sense. It grants us better selection (like the tastier local tomato in contrast of the one coming from overseas and designed to never expire) and creates a better balance in the economy too. Even if it has disadvantages like you cannot grow everything everywhere, it is still something easy to do and does not mean any kind of burden on the consumers. It has a little organic vibe, but organic is not a bad idea essentially. It is just, as mentioned before, hard to scale.
Humankind is biologically omnivore. It means no more than we can digest a wide variety of foods. This is a blessing; without it we probably would have gone extinct already. It also makes us being able to choose what we eat based on health or ethical aspects. Leaving out animal sourced products entirely is one of the decisions we can make. However, it is not something that can be achieved easily. The reason why we feel meat so tasty is that it is a nutrition complex. It contains almost everything what our body needs. Meats are usually recognized to be unhealthy but for the wrong reasons. In my opinion the real reason of meat can be considered unhealthy is that it causes more damage in case of overconsumption than vegetables. And we overeat ourselves. I mean, yes, literally everyone. (In developed countries like the USA.)
But if we have ethical concerns about processing animals, we can choose to follow any version of vegetarianism. However, it comes with a price, vegans need to design their diet meticulously in order to satisfy every need of their bodies. It takes a lot of research, constant attention and adjustments. Most of the people are not willing to put that much effort into food awareness, and this is the reason why it cannot be a large-scale solution for any kind of industry or consumption problem.
Misinformation and deception are also part of this. Like look at the example of meat substitutes. You can see this as healthier, alternative way of meat consumption, but how I see it, is different. Because you can see Impossible Burger to sell you previously unsalable plants shaped into a patty and seasoned to taste like beef for double price. Or in a similar manner: salads, which are said to be the healthiest choice of food, is basically nothing else, but a way to sell vegetables (that are traditionally cheap) for a higher price. Of course, there is added value, as you don’t have to prepare it, but is this value really justifies the ten times more price (the average price of salad dishes in Chop is about $10)?
