Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing
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Everyone reading this should bow their head and say a word of prayer for my poor wife who puts up with my shopping habits… well, one habit especially.
I am unsure when this habit started, but it was within the last 2 years. I think it is some of Lou Dobbs rubbing off on me.
While grocery shopping and as my wife is busy checking the nutrition labels on the food we are putting in the basket, I am rattling off the countries of origin – China, China, China, Mexico, China, Peru, China, China, Honduras.
Then I lost it one day, I found a small box of garlic bulbs that came from China. One single ounce of garlic had been shipped from CHINA to Lewisville, NC and had found it’s way into my basket. OH MY GAWD DID I BITCH. I complained to management, I warned and complained to other shoppers – Hell, I even let me displeasure known to the cashier. I wasn’t belligerent or rude, just “can you believe we can’t even get American grown garlic?” The folks in the store that I discussed the China issue with were all more virulent about the issue than I was. Some were damn mad – one chap was fuming.
That was it for me and Lowe’s Foods. My wife and I decided to switch to Whole Foods, we expected our food price to be higher, but we bit the bullet. Surprisingly, our bill has gone down. Driscoll’s strawberries at Lowes is four times higher than it is at Whole Foods, plus the WF’s product was much higher in quality.
I still have my habit of calling out the place of origin, but now I can be heard saying “North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia, Maine, North Carolina, Lenoir, California, California, Greece, California, Maryland, North Carolina.”
I can’t say enough good things about this store and their buy local policies. Yes, Maine isn’t exactly in Forsyth County, but it ain’t Asia.
Originally posted on BlueNC on THIS thread)
In my area, We have Food Lion, Lowe’s, and Harris Teeter. Whole foods is still a half hour away, but talk of it coming closer is starting.
Food Lion’s reputation is not good, but it’s still the cheapest, next would be Lowe’s in price. Harris T, next, then WF.
I have shopped the exact list at all of them. Each one about 20-30 dollars more as you go up the chain. That means as much as 80-100 more at the “top of the chain”.
I never see minorities shopping at WF, a few at HT.
As always, what’s good for you in variety, sustainables, etc, remains in the realm a class distinction.
With the scandal recently surrounding the WF CEO, it’s getting very hard to trust in what you believe.
I know it starts one shopping cart at a time, but outside of your local Farmer’s Market, they’re all just playin’ us.
We’re lucky in Tasmania, in that a lot of fruits and vegetables are grown here. And Australia, having a tropical north, can even grow its own bananas (we buy the “Eco” brand ones [usually a dollar more per kilo] – they promote themselves as no spray and for carefully removing the frogs from each bunch and putting them back in the plantation).
Mostly we try to buy direct from local growers. Which means buying seasonal foods. If you are worried about the “food miles” racked up by foods shipped half-way ’round the world, you should also consider the environmental (and nutritional) cost of keeping apples in cold storage for eight months.
Fruits and vegetables available out-of-season have been bred and selected for ship-ability and store-ablitiy, taste and nutrition be damned.
It’s mid-winter here, and we’re eating lots of potatoes, carrots, winter squash, greens and cold-weather crops like broccoli and cabage – all bought from a friends a few kilometers away. At least they’ve become good friends, since we became their best customers. Our own veggie garden will need tilling soon – which is the very best place to get your food. If you are limited for space, even a few containers with salad greens and a tomato plant are worth the effort.