As most of you know, I’m not an academic, and I’m certainly no expert on economics or government. However, with elections coming up in both Australia and the USA, I thought it might be a good time to say a few things.
Lately I’ve been noticing a trend, with an increasing number of articles referring to the compromise of quality due, largely, to capitalistic pursuits. A few days ago, yet another article arrived to my inbox about the adulteration of olive oil. Olive oil!! Is nothing sacred? The author made the comment that ‘capitalism is costing us quality’, inferring and relating to recent news articles about olive oil being tainted/cut with other products to increase profit margins. The blog originates in the USA, as did the research that revealed the tainting of olive oil. Recently when we were in the USA we made a number of similar observations ourselves, though not specifically about a single product, more about services. That is not to say that we don’t have problems in Australia, but it is sometimes easier to observe things when out of one’s own environment.
The American Corporate Medical model we experienced, while it was created to work well on paper, has huge chinks in a system that relies on human consistency while simultaneously does not acknowledge characteristics of the individual. A system that was ‘improved’ to offer freedom of choice to many, didn’t account for the fact that offering too many choices can actually diminish the individual’s experience. Our own Medicare system has its problems, and neither system is perfect, but I guess it’s the devil you know, so I was not unhappy to return to the Australian system.
Corporate style food production and consumption seems well out of control of the individual trying to eat healthily, certainly in Southern Ohio.
How did supermarket vegetables lose their palatability, with so many people right there watching? The Case of the Murdered Flavor was a contract killing, as it turns out, and long-distance travel lies at the heart of the plot. —Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Finding foods that have not travelled halfway across the country, or even the world, was rare. The quality of food served by many medium priced restaurants was barely adequate, and never mind the cheaper corporate franchise options which further diminish the eating experience. Finding vegetables, other than potatoes, on restaurant menus was, once again, a challenge. And sourcing something like organic, or local produce seems only available to a very, very small group of people who happen to have access or who grow their own. Many foods are sweetened to a degree that completely drowns the taste of the food itself, or is designed to make up for the fact that poor quality ingredients have little flavour. I could only conclude that most people do not even know any more what good quality food should look and taste like, let alone what it costs to produce. Sadly, this is partially replicated in Australia.
Walmart is well documented to target urban rural sites for its stores. They undercut the prices of local shops until the shops close, and then when Walmart closes it leaves the small towns with no local shopping or employment. Heavy subsidies of the corn industry have supported GM development that ever increases yield, not to mention the use of high fructose corn syrup to ridiculous levels. The end result in many rural areas is that the financial returns do not go to support the surrounding communities which continue to lose educational and medical resources, but to line the pockets of corporate owners and producers. (Rural communities: Legacy + Change by Cornelian Butler Flora, Jan L Flora, Stephen P Gasteyer)
If you are aged and can no longer live at home on your own, and don’t wish to live with family, or they cannot provide for you, there is the corporate style ‘assisted living’ option. Decades ago, our parents made it clear to us they had their own plans. The reality of that did not work and so they opted for the assisted living situation. During our recent stay we felt our Mum needed a higher level of care and we sought to use the ‘in house’ service to take her blood pressure and administer her medications on a daily basis. It was badly managed by aides with such low levels of skill that we cancelled the service less than two weeks after it started. And it wasn’t just the low skill, but in one case a very bad attitude that I could only say reflects badly on bovine-like behaviour. And what can you expect, when the minimum wage is half what it is in Australia and other countries?
Let me share with you a simple example. On our American Airlines return flight from Cincinnati to Dallas Fort Worth, we flew ‘first class’, which is the same as ‘business class’ in Australia. For this two and a half hour flight we were offered alcoholic beverages and a snack, free of charge. My husband ordered a gin and tonic and I requested water. Both drinks appeared in plastic cups, with no fruit garnish, making it difficult to tell which drink was which, save the bubbles. Potato crisps, sweetened popcorn and something else sweet were offered as a snack, no doubt to satisfy the well trained palate expecting HFCS or a high carbohydrate alternative. At the end of the flight the attendant walked the aisle with a large garbage bag, nodding (not speaking) to us to drop our trash into the bag ourselves. (We are not above picking up our own trash, but really, we had paid for first class service.) Hours later we were in business class seats on Qantas and we received drinks in real glasses, water garnished with lemon and nuts with pretzels as a snack, even serviettes. The attendant collected the trash by hand and returned it to the rubbish recycle receptacles in the galley. I could not have made up two more starkly contrasting examples of the same situation if I had tried, illustrating that not every corporate experience needs to be a low quality one.
These are not only things we have read and seen with our own eyes, but have been validated by various Americans we spoke with while there. In fact one of them encouraged me to write this article. The general population seems disillusioned and disappointed, evident in the anger and abhorrent behaviour in the current political race. Who can blame them?
Some of the benefits of capitalism are supposedly quality and choice. But if those have become the casualties, perhaps we are partly to blame for the choices we make. Perhaps we need to lower our expectations of having ‘stuff’ and having someone else look after us, and we need to educate ourselves and discover what is really important in life, so that we make better choices. There are other ways to ‘vote’ than at the ballot box. We can vote by shutting our wallets, we can vote by actions and we can vote with our feet, by walking away from unsatisfactory options. If we are not always trying to find the cheapest service or product, but look for value for money and understand what the real cost of living is, we will empower ourselves and our respective country.
When we aspire to a good quality of life, let’s not look to the corporate paradigms that show how cheaply things can be done, those that put growth and profit above all else. Let’s look to examples that preserve quality of life at every opportunity.
mel said:
Ardys: The reason you are so appalled is because the facts of lack of care about
service—and the quality of product IS appalling! Perhaps Michael Douglas’s character in the Movie “WALL STREET” expressed the corporate stance best when
he intoned “Greed, for want of a better word, is good.” As far as the food element
of your essay goes I am encouraged by the “Farm to Table Movement” as many of the better resturaunts have noticed quality can breed success. And many of our better food stores (Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods) are now going the extra mile on product and customer service. No doubt about your airline examples! U.S. Airlines
taught the world’s airlines how to do it right—and have now forgotten how themselves!
As Benjamin Franklin said (and I paraphrase) “The more you do right by your
customer the more your purse is rewarded.”
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ardysez said:
Thank you Mel. Gordon Gekko’s comment has crossed my mind more than once when analysing the current state of our respective economies and cultures. Indeed the USA showed the world much of what is good about capitalism and corporate enterprise, but it seems now we are seeing the other end of the spectrum. I would be in total despair, were it not for the writings (and success) of a few people like Michael Pollan extolling the virtues of sustainable farming and mindful consumption, and the “Farm to table” and “slow food” movements. I have shopped in both Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods and they are certainly a step up from the normal grocery store chains. I think Benjamin Franklin really had the right idea all those years ago, though!
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ladyredspecs said:
Hooray Ardys, very well said! I believe highly processed food loaded with enhancers, salts and sugars have changed flavour expectations. Subtle flavours are often labelled bland, stronger flavours are just labelled s–t. We all have choices, but sadly corporations are expert at manipulating our lack of time, tight budgets and mediocre expectations. My Dad always said that high expectations will lead to great result. Sadly the opposite is also true. We need to demand better, our $$$$ speak the loudest.
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ardysez said:
Thank you Sandra. I know I’m talking to the converted, as many of my readers are mindful of their eating and consumption, but it’s very clear there are a lot of people out there who are lost. So many people haven’t made the connection about the true cost of things, and I’m not just talking financially. The cost of buying cheap food is the lack of nutrition it gives back, for example. There is the price, and then there is the true cost of things, and that requires closer scrutiny. I’m glad to see that ‘country of origin’ will be included on labels from July 1, a step in the right direction, though still a minefield. It’s a complex world we live in but hopefully we haven’t left it too late to save ourselves from the greed monsters.
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EllaDee said:
I like to hear-read-see voices crying out-pointing out because it’s becoming apparent that silence amounts to collusion in this if you’re not for us you’re against us world.
Another voice who you might want to look up is Instagrammer outlaw_omnivore aka Whole Larder Love website-FB aka Rohan Anderson. I commented this morning on his pic of a CAFO chicken facility “Too many people don’t want to know, and they are making it an easy gig for the Corporates. My experience is it takes no more money to eat well & ethically but it takes a lot more investment of time, care and interest in where your food comes from whether you raise it yourself or buy from people who do.”
Expanding on that vis a vis your post, it takes little more effort to care about quality than it does to not. The world needs to wake up, think for itself, ask questions and demand answers. So much has already been lost. We need to join the dots about environment, climate change, food, health issues and obscene amount of money being spent by Corporates in all industries on marketing & strategies that are feeding off our futures. Australia has begun with berries, eggs and to some extent meat chickens but it needs to go much further and be proactive not reactive. We are being sold short in the name of balance sheets and shareholder dividends. There’s much at stake, and what’s lost may never be recovered. You can’t eat money.
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ardysez said:
Well said, Dale. You are right about everything! I fuss and carry on every time I try to find decent eggs here, as we are so far away from everywhere that has chickens. I was standing in a queue in Adelaide last year and the ladies were complaining about having to pay $5 for a dozen good quality free range eggs, and I turned around told them I would LOVE to only pay $5 for free range eggs if I could find them at all! They were shocked. You are especially right that if we don’t start speaking up we are complicit in the whole ugly mess. And best of all, I love your comment ‘you can’t eat money’. Nuf said.
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EllaDee said:
You can’t eat money… credit to John Butler Trio – Money http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnbutlertrio/money.html
I could go on… and on… maybe I should write a blog post… that would be novel 😉 Big Business relies on the multitude of people are who too disengaged to think or do for themselves. I once worked for a global “weight loss” corporation to which clients paid good money for their branded food and hype instead of simply making better choices themselves.
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ardysez said:
Thanks for the link, I used to listen to JBT all the time, I’ll have a listen. I’ve often wondered why people buy that branded weight loss food but then I grew up knowing how to cook and have been curious enough to learn more over the years. Yes, you should write a blog post about it, you always have some interesting thoughts!
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Eha said:
Thank you for such a thoughtful and thought provoking post. Being a European-born Australian who has not been to the US for quite a few years and only knows well the major centres on both Coasts + Chicago and Detroit, I feel it would be inopportune to comment about conditions you have experienced first-hand and I have but read or heard. But I have seen first-hand an incredible amount of ‘corporate greed’ here also as I have done market surveys 7 days a week for a number of years. So much is for ‘looks’ and for ‘fashion this year’, so many times a week I am asked ‘what would be the maximum you would pay for this’? Whereas many people show disinterest and refuse to spend time on finding the ‘best possible’ methinks it is no accident that the number of small producers, farmers’ markets and specialist food stores are on an obvious rise. It is a delight for me to be able to shop for so many items on line be they meats or fish or spices and certainly olive oil from Australian sources and keep our dollars at home: it is my choice that I buy less and more expensive but healthier and better to get quality not quantity. I think the latter is of utmost importance: and there sadly, I have read too many Australian food bloggers taking us ‘food travelling’ thru’ the States, more those in the South and been horrified by the grease, sugar, lack of vegetables and plates overflowing with food. I believe we can overcome the obvious corporate greed by a simple refusal to kow-tow to it wherever possible. It is our money, our health, our choice . . .
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ardysez said:
I was trepidatious about posting this piece, not wanting to sound like I was ‘America bashing’. It was such a shock to be seeing and reading all of this in such a short space of time, and then to hear friends reiterating the same, I just felt I needed to say something. There are some good things going on there too, but they are still hard to find unless, as I said, you happen to have access, which much of the midwest and rural America does not. Thank you for your comment Eha, three cheers for choice!
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Anne Wheaton said:
Unfortunately, this seems to be a UK problem too. Our small town is ringed by large supermarkets and we have no independent food shops left except for one butcher. Standing in the queue I’m amazed by some of the comments about price, when actually some things are cheaper than the supermarkets and others unobtainable in them. The butcher sells local, traceable meat that they cut to the size you want and still people prefer to buy a cling wrapped packet from the supermarket.
Incidentally, we are selling our wheat for the same price as in 2003 yet our costs of production have increased year on year.
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ardysez said:
I usually buy meat from a butcher that is an outlet for a specific station (farm) so that I know the meat is grass fed and yes, it is often made into cuts unobtainable from the grocery. I’m sorry to see that even though your production costs have increased, the selling price has not. Most of us have no idea what the real cost of raising food is, not to mention the hardship of producing it. Thank you for commenting, Anne, best to you.
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Donna said:
Yes, I believe quality IS a causalty of this corporate world! This is very well written Ardys and I don’t think it comes across as America bashing so much as it sheds more light on the fact that much has been lost in our eagerness to produce cheap food with a forever shelf life that suits our grab and go lifestyles and sweet tooth! It’s because of courageous pieces like this that we are starting to see small, positive, changes on our store shelves and menus of better restaurants – Thanks for this great post!
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ardysez said:
Thank you so much Donna. It was very startling and not a little upsetting for us to have this reality hit home to us on this recent visit. There are hardly any vestiges of the life I remember there as a girl. I know there are those working toward making things better but it almost feels like it won’t come soon enough.
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Littlesundog said:
I really enjoyed this post. Here, we make every effort to eat clean, even though it costs much more and we have to drive a distance to acquire good foods. During the summer I have two gardens. And, when we purchase goods for our home or property, we try to buy items made in the USA. Just this past week I called five local farm stores about acquiring welded wire fencing an I specified it had to be made in the USA. Only two carried American brands, and one was actually manufactured in Oklahoma! If I cannot find what I want, I tell a manager why they lost my business. It is up to the consumer to voice what they want. Until people begin making better choices and do the difficult work of making positive changes, we will continue to see “casualty of a corporate world”.
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ardysez said:
I understand what you are saying, Lori. I try to buy Australian made here, too, and local produce when possible. I, too, let retailers know when I can’t find the product or service I am after. How else will they know? I hope your health is on the mend. xx
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Francesca said:
Here, here Ardys. I agree with you on every point you raise. Olive oil, by the way, is tainted here too. Anything with an Italian/Spanish/Greek label- beware . Only buy Australian- labeling rules are strictly adhered to.
Yes, we can all vote in different ways. When I see the American candidates, I either feel like vomiting, or turning off the TV. Mr T engages with this stuff- he finds it amusing. I don’t.
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ardysez said:
I only buy Australian olive oil so I guess I’ve never noticed. The politics in the US makes me feel sick, too Francesca. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment while you are traveling! Buon viaggio!
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nannygrannie said:
Wonderfully written post. I’ve started blogging about my backyard garden…maybe we need more vegetable gardens!
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ardysez said:
I think we do! Unfortunately I live in a place where backyard gardening is all but impossible. We have a couple of citrus trees and I grow most of my own herbs but here in hot, arid land that is about the best you can do. Thank you for reading and commenting!
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