Sunshine and Light

My 15 minutes of fame...

It all started with this announcement from Walmart that they want to expand their organic line. The crunchy con heads exploded.

I've now made the crunchy-con blog. Too funny. My poor husband, I bring shame upon the family.

I still disagree with Rod Dreher, basically because we're crunchy for different reasons. I like organic foods because in principle I think using unnecessary chemicals is a bad thing. Overall we buy what's available at the local Shop and Save, but I try to make it a point to buy at least one organic product a week. Not necessarily because I think it's better or worse than the other products, but because I LIKE encouraging a certain amount of organic farming. I also do recognize that if it were all organic farming, the lower resulting productivity would mean that the next choice would be between those in wealthier countries eating meat and those in less wealthy countries starving. It's already happening, but less food on the market means higher prices and less availability to those who can least afford it. But somewhere in there, there has to be a balance.

Since this is the kind of discussion that sort of requires a "but do you live it" type of set up, here's the deal. I shop at Walmart a LOT. There are issues that I have with them, but I also think there are a lot of good things that they do, that they don't even give partial credit for. My Dad works on a fund raiser every year that raises money for blind kids. Everything they raise outside of Walmart, Walmart matches. They were among the first to hire elderly and handicapped (challenged?). I like their support the troops stance. There are a lot of things that are bad about Walmart, but I think they get demonized too. So I don't have a single twitch of my conscience over buying common things there like shampoo, cosmetics, dog food, and powerade. Buying there over the local grocery store chain or the drugstore chain, on the same brands, saves us probably $20/month. Which I then immediately spend at the local Mom & Pop ethnic grocery stores, vegetable and meat markets downtown.

Anyway, whether you think Walmart carrying organic foods is good or bad, depends on a few things.

• Your overall feeling about Walmart. If you hate Walmart on principle, this is the end of the world
• Why you buy organic - is it because what the local farmers & ranchers raise? Is it because you think it's healthier for you? Is it because you think it's healthier for everyone in general?
• What's more important - organic or local? If you buy organic because of the first two reasons, local will be more important and the organic thing at Walmart is pointless. If you buy organic for the last reason, then probably organic is more important.

Intellesting, vellllly intellesting

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 1:36 PM