Ranting to /dev/null

how come you're not on WoW anymore?

Got freaking sick of the lag. My patience for that kind of thing is quite limited, especially when I've got perfectly serviceable games that I can play any time I want, without waiting in line. Planning on playing a bit tomorrow, if I can actually get on.

You are delving into the whole issue of fair trade. I don't know about potatoes or potatos from Chile, but I know a wee bit about coffee. A little cup of coffee here has been through a long and sad system: first, the biggest population of birds comes from the area of Columbia S.A. where coffee is grown. Trees are chopped down to make room for coffee to be grown, thus, the bird population is harmed. It is better to buy- but it is more expensive- shade grown coffee so we can protect the birds and ecosystem.

Labor intensive: something like 100 beans are picked for a cup of coffee. Then we have the shipping cost to bring it to market. In short, we are using way to much of the world's resources at a very cheap price, but sadly this will run out for us. This is just for one cup of coffee in the U.S. We cannot sustain this drain on nature. Wal-Mart and consumers must change their ways or our resources will be depleted. Low prices will always catch up with us in the end. We need to do what is right for the next generation and the planet and use less, pay a little bit more so farming is done correctly and recycle.

If companies like Whole Foods advocates fair trade and environmentally sensitive policies (which I believe they do) then we should do what is right.

Guess who didn't read the article I linked?

I'll give you a hint. The name starts with "s-" and ends with "-andy".

The article was about organic foods, not fair trade. Specifically, the fact that most of the inventory sold by Whole Foods is conventionally produced, not from local, small, family farmers, as they'd have you believe. Estimates vary, but somewhere between 1% and 5% of the food sold at Whole Foods is not produced by agribusiness corporations. This is not exactly the image they're attempting to create for themselves.

This is, of course, largely insigificant, as Whole Foods is far more about image than anything else.

The fact that I think "fair trade" is largely a crock of monkey poo is of some tangential interest, but nevertheless has as little to do with the article as "fair trade" itself does.

well, its gotten alot better. They just did a big server move thingie, so they offloaded a rather large percentage of the active players, and they reinstated queues, which isn't too bad. I only really hit it on peak hours, and then I'm on in 15 minutes with significantly less lag.

Ryan, you have a point. But you distorted the article a little bit, I think. Its author seems mainly to hope that organic food lives up to its locally-grown billing, not that people forget about buying organic entirely. I like the idea of organic and locally-grown coming together once again, although of course it wouldn't work everywhere (that's why conventionally grown foods are here to stay). I also like the author's point about the division Whole Foods creates between those who can afford organic food and those who can't.

I'd be interested to hear your criticism of fair trade, as I've yet to hear it criticized by anyone yet.

Alright Ryan, I finally got around to reading that article, which was good, but if I can make a few points (and like, disagree with you're "argument")

The article doesn't really make an argument for Wal-Mart or whatever over Whole Foods, heck it doesn't even make an argument for conventional foods over Organic foods. I'm kinda like "WTF you talking about Ryan?"

What it does drive at, and this has been my longstanding beef with the entire "Organic" foods movement, is recognizing that "Organically Grown" doesn't mean "Locally Grown", and makes a rather interesting theoretical anecdote to "buying Organic from Chile" versus "buying conventional from New Jersey" and the related energy costs.

And yes, its important to note that it was a theoretical example. I'd love to know just how much "organically" grown foodstuffs come from Chile', but whatever. Its important because the entire "Foodstuffs from Chile'" angle represents a significant portion of your rhetorical fervor in your post (the entire last paragraph). Kinda like your ranting from /dev/null

But onwards:

Its completely possible (and heck, even likely) that "organic" "sustainable" etc. are all used as marketing gimmicks, but just because its a gimmick doesn't mean it isn't true or even that is false, nor is that the point of the article.

What I do think we need (and ends up being the point of the article) is better information concerning where and how we're getting our foodstuff/goods. For example, I know a great local baker that attempts to use organic goods where they can (because it is when you get down to it, better tasting and better for you), but most importantly they know, and conversely I can know (because they seek to inform the consumer) where it comes from: I nice little mostly-organic grainery in North Carolina.

What I'd love is to walk into my grocery market's produce section, look at a stack of carrots, and read a little card that says "carrots from such and such a farm in whatever location" with further info about the farm. There's a marketing gimmick I could really get behind.

The grocery (not a chain) in the town where I grew up does that for some of their produce. It's nice. I was too young to appreciate it growing up, though.