Anytime I buy a Bio product I feel defeated. I feel like I have just paid for air. It happens rarely–very rarely–but it still happens. I usually have a very objective reason for buying a Bio product other than the reasons a Hippie might buy it (if a Hippie had any money, man) but it still stings me a bit.
I will give you two examples of when I have bought a Bio product and why, and then I’ll move on to the point of my post. The first is when buying feta for the great feta pate. I strongly prefer fresh feta in the brine to vacuum-packed feta and my only non-vacuum-packed option was a Bio option. The second is when buying bananas and the Bio bananas looked bigger, brighter, and better than the non-Bio bananas; and no, I don’t think that’s because the Bio products are “better” but just that they didn’t have any Doles.
I thought a little bit about the Bio vs. non-Bio product debate and it really seems to me the target audience–or at least, the ones who get most passionate about it–are middle-aged women. Maybe women more generally, but certainly middle-aged women–the soccer mom age. When I came to that realization I could even recall a women trying to lecture me about the “low quality” of the milk I was buying at Aldi Süd in Germany. In the checkout line a woman even switched to English (of course, I didn’t understand her German) to tell me about how my milk lacks the quality and nutrition that more natural milks enjoy. (To be honest, all that milk talk made me want milk even more and I opened the carton as soon as I left the store.)
I can draw parallels between the Mac and PC debate. Macs are the “new” (not really, but you know), premium-priced, “better” products while PCs are the old, what everyone’s used to, commodities. Many Mac users are fanatics about the product, trying to persuade those around them to buy these “better for you” products. The majority of buyers don’t get involved in the argument, choosing to just buy what they’re used to (PCs). There are also some people on the PC-side who are decidedly PC and are vocal about it.
This realization made me laugh. In this parallel I am undoubtably on opposing sides. I thought about why these two particular debates are of interest to me and can explain it simply by saying that both computers and food are things of interest to me. Clearly the reasons why I use Macs are vastly different than why I buy non-Bio food products but both positions I have come to after considerable thought and experience.
What debates are important to you, and which side are you on? Do you see any parallels to the “better, more expensive” vs “traditional, better value” examples here?
There are technical differences between a mac and a PC which make one superior to the other by specific metrics. They are meaningfully different.
Organic foods are not guaranteed to be any better than regular foods. They are more expensive, have different marketing and offer reinforcement to specific types of self-image (self-delusion?) but the variation between an organic product and a regular product is not predictably different than the variation between two regular products.
Choosing an organic food over a regular food can only be done for reasons above and beyond the content of the food, as that is not the domain in which they are differentiated. Choosing a mac over a PC, while having an element of marketing and signaling of self-image, also has a technical grounding.
To sum up, screw the smelly hippies.
Organic produce that has an edible skin, especially lettuce, berries, etc., are items that should be organic. Harmful chemicals can hide in all of those little nooks and crannies. Things like bananas, toilet paper, make-up…seems kind of ridiculous. But more often than not, I lean for organic when it comes to food.
Other debates? Sustainability, completely and 100% for. Also, when Americans complain, “This is America, learn English! We don’t have to accommodate for you!” due to the infiltration of Spanish. I get very defensive and upset because not only is learning a second language extremely difficult but because our country is based on a nation of immigrants. There are many others but it’s bed time and I don’t want to get worked up! haha
PS: Hippies are pretty cool.