Entry #19: Organic Food Pt.2

I'm just making this post because my efforts always seem futile. I feel like an armchair conspiracist, even though I'm not shouting anything too far astray from the mainstream from ontop of my online-soapboxes. It feels like I'm one of those Ron Paul Revolution, illuminati conspiracists shouting tons of regurgitated shit that nobody gives a fuck about, only backfiring and making them look like uptight, paranoid - or even pretentious - pricks. This is not the fucking case; in Entry #14, I cite Paul Roberts and Michael Pollan, both being top selling authors and very popular investigative journalists - not unverified online sources or youtube user speculations. They're not obscure sources, and they're not sources that require much digging. This is surface-level shit, fuckheads. They're certainly not my only sources of information, though, and they're certainly my most accessible - so don't get the sort of vibe that I'm limited to only their works, I just didn't feel like writing a fucking college essay for my entry and felt that those two sources alone could efficiently be utilized for my argument.

I'm glad to know that most people will just do a simple search on the FDA website, find something saying otherwise, and close the argument because further speculation would be "unscientific." Somehow a fucking branding iron gets heated up, and I get a big fucking "hippie" on my hairy white ass. The cheese-meter only begins to peak once the ad hominems start to get used; of course, since I support organic food that means I'm in the same category as soccer moms who drive Priuses and shops at Whole Foods. Genius. There's a fine art to stereotyping, one that I probably haven't been too keen on in any of my entries myself. The Prius driving, soccer moms who shop at Whole Foods isn't a very original, inventive, or otherwise clever stereotype, honestly; it could've very easily been expounded upon, and without such obvious choices. That's just like making fun of obese people with McDonalds jokes. The stereotype doesn't challenge me, it just pisses me off.

First off, I don't shop at Whole Foods. Whole Foods abandoned its buying local buying practices long ago and started building warehouses. Plenty of the produce from Whole Foods is from the same national industrial organic companies that you find at conventional grocers, just slightly fresher and with higher price tags. In my previous entry about organic food, I stated that I'd still rather support Whole Foods than Wal-Mart: I do not retract this statement. I wouldn't want to support Whole Foods for its produce, but rather for its specialty products and its treatment of workers. How workers are treated greatly affects where I shop. Even though Marcs is the cheapest grocer in northeast Ohio, I still avoid Marcs since I know the quality is poor (oftentimes they salvage leftovers from the Westside Market), their workplaces are anti-union, and the kids working in most of the departments (including produce) could give a shit less about what they're doing.
Whole Foods is definitely a step up from a conventional grocer, but please don't use it as a fucking representative for the organic movement (especially when I clearly state that I support organic and local, if possible). Whole Foods sells high quality products, and has a great selection for those with special dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, etc.), but it's not what I think the organic movement should be about. I strongly disagree with Whole Foods, Earthbound Farms, Stonyfield Farms, etc. - any company that thinks expanding organic food to an industrial level is the solution; it's a band-aid and definitely creates more discussion, but it's not what we should aspire to.

Secondly, don't use hybrid cars (especially those that are foreign made) to represent people who shop organic. When living in Tucson I occassionally went to this local food co-op, and it wasn't full of people who were wealthy and "sophisticated" enough to own hybrids. The stereotype of people who shop organic driving hybrids is entirely based off a small population of wealthy Hollywood types or middle agers who suddenly have an interest in their health. To that: fuck California for fucking up how people perceive organic food. I don't know a single person who owns a hybrid (not that I have anything against hybrids); I personally walk, ride my bike, and take the RTA to wherever I need to go. If I was going to get a car again for the rare instances when I need it, it would probably be the rustiest, cheapest piece of shit I could find - and I'd use it as little as often. However, I'd still make sure it's American made, fuckheads.

In conclusion, people don't know what the fuck they're talking about, and people do a really shitty and uncreative job at stereotyping. California has shaped the white, upper-middle class, health-conscious yuppie stereotype associated with organic food, and for that: fuck California. Best babes, weed, and burritos? Fuck you, I'll take a homely piece who can hold a conversation and appreciate the underprivileged, piss drunk alcoholics stumbling around and making funny shit happen (rather than eating doritos and sitting around in black lights listening to Bob Marley), and my European food. mmmm.