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Manure Hawkers? Crap Distributors? Shit Dispersers?
9 replies
Manure Hawkers? Crap Distributors? Shit Dispersers?
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This makes me feel good in a schadenfreude kind of way.
It's wrong, very wrong, but man it's gotta be rough for the folks who have really been trying to eat organically and end up consuming the bad stuff anyway at a higher cost.
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@apronk: I started doing the milk because it lasts a month longer (you don't find normal ultrapasteurized milk) I like the eggs better. Also we don't eat non organic pork because pigs are treated horribly. We don't make a big deal about it, if someone serves pork we just don't eat it, we don't try to convert or anything. Not eating bacon and sausage anymore was one of the hardest things to do until I found the turkey equivalent. less fatty with a similar taste!
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@snowburnt: If only people were more like you :D One of the switches my wife and I made was to go with organic and free range chicken eggs, which of course cost a TON more than the cheapie store ones.
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@rainmkr: We're lucky enough to get our eggs from a local farm and while they aren't certified organic, they're sustainable, hormone-free and free-range, and taste amazing. Best of all, they aren't terribly expensive -- I highly recommend checking out local chickens.
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@JulesNoctambule: I concur. Local free-range farm chicken eggs are delicious. But the chickens themselves? They take some getting used to, those aren't something you can go into thinking it'll taste like you're used to.
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@JulesNoctambule: I second that. I buy local eggs at a health food store. They are really good. The yolk is so dark and rich.
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Do you feel snarky when people paying for superpremium unleaded gasoline wind up with leaded/watered down?
Is it funny that people were defrauded? Some people avoid certain substances because they are allergic to them, or because they simply don't want to ingest them. If something is labeled to NOT contain something and it actually DOES, that's not cool.
@pollyannacowgirl: I made that statement in regards to the rich organic-peoples of America.
It wasn't intended for those who actually physically suffer as a direct result of the ammonium sulfate.
Should I have clarified that? Sorry for not running the sensitivity checker in my web browser before I posted.
I guess I find humor where I shouldn't sometimes. At least I'm not the only one.
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@pollyannacowgirl: I don't feel the same schadenfreude, but I think a lot of people felt that the people paying premiums for organics were being taken for a ride. To have it confirmed is an \"ouch... lol\" moment.
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@pollyannacowgirl: I think the comedy is there because a lot of organic-o-philes are just so damned smug about it. I'm better than you because blah blah blah.
I just dig the taste of mega-pasturized organic milk and a big fan of chicken eggs with actual egg flavor. I really couldn't taste a difference with fruits and veggies so I stopped paying the organic premium on those.
And I don't think I'm better than anyone else for it.
Clearly I'm better than everyone else due to my taste in music.
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@Applekid: I don't understand the entire \"Because people choose another type of diet, they are immediately smug as hell\" movement. I see this time and time again all over the internet. People hate vegetarians or vegans like they killed their favorite puppy. Same goes for those who choose to eat organic. I see a thousand comments pop up that are like \"HAHAHA you morally superior bastards, you got what you deserved\". But I never see anyone chiding those who eat whatever a \"conventional\" diet even is.
These other diet people always try to explain themselves in a logical manner saying things about helping the enviroment, or their health, or the whole humane thing. I dont eat any kind of specialized diet but understand the reasoning of those who do. Everytime I ask the intrawebs cloud about this mass hatred I always get responses that are like \"One time in college I knew this crazy animal rights chick\" or \"My emo nephew is an asshole to those who dont eat meat\". I just can't believe people base their entire opinions on weak anecedotes like these.
People who choose other diets %99 of the time do so after informed research and just because they might pay more doesn't make them dicks.
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@Fresh-Fest-1986: I think it's just cuz people form their opinions based on personal experience. Nobody's saying that vegans are smug about their diet, but all the ones I've ever met are douchebags. Simple observation.
@Fresh-Fest-1986: I have a feeling some of it is the sour grapes phenomenon, too. Like, if I can't afford to eat organic (or choose to spend my money on something else instead), I'll hate everyone who can. See the comment directly below.
And Marie Antoinette says: \"Let them eat organic!\"
@Applekid: I can't bring myself to pay extra for the milk, but you are dead on with the organic/premium eggs being quite a bit better.
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@failurate: We always do with milk. Eggs, fruits and veggies sometimes but truthfully I care more about locally produced stuff than organic.
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So the $10 extra you paid for all those veggies SURE WENT A LONG WAY! GG!
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Wow, talk about an asshole. As stated above, some people find the taste/flavor/whatever better. There's no reason to be a dick about it.
The fact of the matter here was that people had purchased something, and they were lied to about what they were buying. That is Consumerist-worthy regardless of what it was, and I personally find your comment to be the likes of blame-the-victim dickheads that Consumerist is so consumed with these days.
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I understand that \"kosher\" has come to mean \"acceptable\" or \"following the rules\" in common parlance, but when talking about food, kosher denotes a specific category of acceptable (foods prepared according to Jewish dietary laws) which is, I think, not what Alex means.
Are the ingredients non-kosher, or just non-organic? I know it seems pedantic, but I'm genuinely wondering.
@CorporateTool: I hate to agree, but I do.
I use the term \"kosher\" all the time in conversation to mean \"allowed\" or \"OK\" or whatever, but in a story all about food, it could be confusing to....someone?
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@lannister80: It's confusing to me - are organic foods marketed to Jews that follow kosher guidelines? Or does organic have nothing to with kosher, and it was just being used as slang? Curious minds with too much time on their hands want to know...
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@VegasDarling: Organic and kosher have no connection. For example, there are many kosher foods that are not organic (e.g. gefilte fish).
Organic foods are typically marketed towards yuppy trash (e.g. me), although, it doesn't work on all yuppies (e.g. me).
@VegasDarling: Sounds like, in context of this article, it was being used to denote \"not-ok\" ingredients, rather than ones that were or were not actually \"kosher\".
I'm not sure how organic foods, meat and eggs especially fare with kosher standards.
@lannister80: To those of us who keep kosher.
In the past year a type of \"pre-washed\" lettuce lost its kosher certification as it had bugs in the lettuce (rendering it unkosher unless you re-washed it).
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I was referring to the ingredients in the fertilizer, not food, so I meant the former meaning. Although I think the article said the fertilizer is normally made from \"fish product,\" so if it's shellfish, then the fertilizer is also non-Kosher.
Also, I love pedantry, so nitpick away!
@Alex Chasick: Thanks Alex, although if the fertilizer is fish-based, that doesn't render the vegetable unkosher, as long as you don't eat the actually fertilizer (which you should be washing off anyway).
@CorporateTool: I don't know about that - I know you can't use the same plate for meat and dairy, even if you wash them in between, so wouldn't the food coming into contact with and absorbing nonkosher products render it nonkosher?
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Just for confusing funsies -- fish (not shellfish, but fish) are not only generally kosher, but also pareve, meaning they are neutral foods and not considered meat. You can mix fish with dairy with impunity!
Shellfish, on the other hand, would make it non-kosher. Also catfish. Jews aren't supposed to eat bottom-feeders in general. :)
Why does it matter if a fertilizer is organic or not? It's the nitrogen from it the soil needs, not extra carbon.
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@QasimIole: There's quite a bit of evidence that nutrition is more of a holistic thing than something you can just pick one chemical compound out of and declare it healthy. It's the sum total parts of a food that make it healthy, not one single vitamin it contains; It's possible (often not proven either way) that a single vitamin by itself might be harmful or ineffective when not combined with others normally present in the food.
A good example of that is vitamin D and the calcium in milk.
With that in mind, there are quite a few people who really dislike the idea of tailored chemical fertilizers; How do they know that the chemical company didn't drop something critically important to the healthfulness of the food grown with their product, believing it to be unimportant? Or add something toxic, by itself or in combination with other things, believing it to be harmless?
And now, people are discovering that what they thought was additive-free food wasn't so additive-free.
All of that completely ignores the civil and criminal penalties for labeling something as Organically Grown if it is not, in fact, true under the law.
Poo peddlar?
This makes me mad. I buy Earthbound Farms products. I don't want chemicals in my food nor do I want to add to the chemicals in the environment. I'm sure they didn't discount the fertilizer to the growers, either. I feel bad for the farmers who were relying on the honesty of their sellers in stating the fertilizer was organic. This shows the flaw in enforcing organic standards in the US>
@Red-headed bookworm: Very serious flaws - we have a lot wrong with our food production practices, regulation, and enforcement.
While I strongly agree with you, I'd like to gently point out something that others might be less sensitive about - though you probably mean \"synthetic chemicals\" or \"toxic chemicals\" or something similar, saying you don't want chemicals in your food doesn't mean precisely that.
Every type of matter is chemicals - which I'm sure you're aware of. But this kind of shorthand leads to the misconceptions that not only are there no 'good chemicals' but that anything natural (or 'non-chemical') is safe and good. This is more than a pedantic point. There is a lot of scientific & legal debate over what are actually naturally derived substances and a lot of powerful interests weighing in on what should be labeled as natural, organic, safe, non-toxic, etc. Public confusion over the very idea of \"chemicals\" means that the more subtle distinctions get overlooked, and lay people's input is ignored because - as many scientists believe - they just don't understand the basics.
Sorry for the lecture - it's a pet peeve of mine, but mostly because it ends up with concerned people unintentionally shooting themselves in the foot when they're trying to bring important issues to light.
@oneandone: Yeah, toxic or synthetic chemicals is what I meant. Plus, I have issues with the overuse of synthetic fertilizers in farming and how it affects waterways and the whole eco-system.
I prefer to buy from local growers who I can communicate with about what and how they grow but, in cases like this, they may have every intention of growing organically but aren't because of the greed of others.
@oneandone: I'm so glad you pointed that out because it is also a pet-peeve of mine. I'm glad it bothers someone else out there on the interwebs too.
Unknowingly my FOOT....
Where's Inspector Gadget when you need him?
Go Go Gadget!!
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News like this makes me so glad I re-thought on buying Whole Foods stocks at $20. They probably have a long way to go yet--the one across the street from my house stocks this brand like mad.
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Just one more reason the word 'organic' is such a joke.
Yes, the idea is great and I heartily approve of it, but once the term gets Whole Food-ed and even worse Archer Daniels Midland-ed then it's been diluted to uselessness. Just look at what qualifies as 'organic free range chicken' as well.
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F'ING A**MASTERS!!!! This is NO different than a Chinese baby food manufacturer putting poison into baby's milk!! CRAP I'm starting to hate the human race. I'm sorry...why do we deserve to live again? Besides the invisible friend theory everyone banters about?
I think its insane that you pay more for food thats more 'wholesome' than food sprayed to hell with pesticides. Its hilarious that its cheaper to eat junk food than to eat healthy.
Although I wonder if some sort of class action lawsuit could come of this.. people have been paying a premium for a product that is could have been sold under false pretenses. Hmm..
@megs29:
Not really, if you think about it. Pesticides and such are a cheap way to keep, well, pests off of food, which damages crops. Without it, there isn't as easy a way to keep pests away. (Although I have heard of some promising alternatives, like the ladybug)
Sort of like paying for a burger over making food yourself; you pay more for the convenience. It's just in this case, it's their convenience, not yours.
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Here's another good reason to get to know the farmers and farms that grow the food you eat.
@LintySoul: Knowing the farmer doesn't help if the farmer doesn't know that his fertilizer isn't what he ordered. Not everyone does a chemical analysis of the product they get from their vendors.
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No wonder the Earthbound Farms spring mix is 6 bucks a pound at Costco even though it is shipped cross country, and the local organic spring mix is 6 bucks for a quarter pound at the Union Square farmer's market.
Also, if it shipped cross-country is it still organic? Any sustainable organic farmer would say no.
I also think \"All-Natural\" and organic should mean the same thing. Bread almost always says \"all-natural\" even though the crops have been sprayed with pesticides. That is not natural. The pesticides should have to be listed as ingredients, sine they are in the food you are eating.
The only foods that are truly \"organic\" are grown/raised yourself. Does anyone think the local farmer can actually compete with the grocery store without using harmfull substances? Anyway, who givesAF, the world's ending in 2012 anyway... right, right? :-)D Let's all smoke plastic!
Ammonium sulfate is ammonium sulfate. It doesn't matter whether it's organic or synthetic. If you think organic is inherently more healthful than conventionally produced foods, then you're fooling yourself.
@JordanBergeron: If you're paying someone more for a specific sourced product, and they are taking your money and giving you something other than what they agreed to give you...that's fraud.
It may well be true that there is no quantitative difference between sources of ammonium sulfate. It may well be true that something about the processing methods has been overlooked and there IS a difference. But so what? Some people are willing to pay more for less processed products, and it's their right to do so...and it's their right to receive what they agreed to pay for.
The food industry basically sucks. I honestly think they have a mindset that makes them WANT to try and get away with this crap. They would rather make less money by screwing the consumer than make more by being up-front and honest about what goes into their product.
@bagumpity: With organic foods it's all about infrastructure issues. To an extent the the credibility of almost all companies who claim organic has been jeopardized simply by their success. Consumers wanted zero to 100 mph with their diets and agriculture just doesn't work like that. Organic certification for farms is an extensive process and corners were bound to be cut. It sucks, but to a lot, was forseeable.
\"Fertilizer merchant\" is so going into my vocabulary now.
It's been a while since chemistry class, but I'm pretty certain that there is no such thing as an inorganic carrot.
\"According to documents obtained by The Bee through a Public Records Act request, California Department of Food and Agriculture officials were notified of the problem in June 2004 but didn't complete their investigation and order the company to remove its product from the organic market until January 2007.\"
http://www.sacbee.com/288/story/1501772.html
More than just the dishonest fertilizer company should be punished.
Makes you wonder how many people who were eating 'organic' for serious health reasons died or became sicker due to this ignorance.
It will be interesting to see how the law suits progress.
Fruits, vegetables and plants are meant to be natural, fresh and organic.....But greedy monsters come along, like Monsanto, and start playing with nature, poisoning our food and killing us little by little with their GMO's and ludicrous experiments ...
.. it's almost as if we're being attacked through our food, making us ill, lethargic, and unable to think rationally.. so the monsters behind the scenes can keep controlling us.... grrr
\"Organic\" food means two things - it's grown without modern chemical pesticides and the plants are grown with natural fertilizers, which may contain more kinds of nutrients than the simple NPK fertilizers as well as conditioning it for better water retention. I care a lot more about pesticides poisoning me than about fertilizers, but it's still annoying.
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Inspectors confirmed the taint in 2005
This, here, is the real story.
@weakdome: What inspector goes around confirming taints? Stay away from mine please, it is very sensitive.
@weakdome: Perhaps Inspector 34 has moved up in the world.
@weakdome: Indeed. How many inspectors does it take to confirm a taint? What's the next step after a taint is confirmed? Is it blessed somehow; a matrimony of the taints?