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OT: What are you Watching/Listening/Drinking?

The food snobbery around these parts is intense. I get roasted for being a food snob in my day to day but I'm nothing compared to this crowd.

At the end of the day I'm part of the "eat whatever the fuck you like" camp.
 
BeLeafer said:
Nice. Yeah, I prepare almost everything I eat from scratch and have been dedicated to organic food only (outside of restaurants) since the early 90s. This all started with my ex, who is very ethical about everything. We started using organic foods because it's best for the environment and best for independent farmers.
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heh, there are some funny parallels between our stories.

when I met my wife, I was working at a local (sustainable, to the extent possible) butcher shop. I was eating meat generally two-three meals / day, closer to three / day. the wife is vegetarian... now I'm basically vegetarian. although I was definitely the impetus behind us cooking more. she got me (mostly) off meat.

interesting question for you: if given the choice between locally grown, non-organic produce, vs. South American, organic produce, which do you pick? I used to be team organic, but now I'm team local. Obviously local + organic is the best.
 
Wayward DP said:
heh, there are some funny parallels between our stories.

when I met my wife, I was working at a local (sustainable, to the extent possible) butcher shop. I was eating meat generally two-three meals / day, closer to three / day. the wife is vegetarian... now I'm basically vegetarian. although I was definitely the impetus behind us cooking more. she got me (mostly) off meat.

interesting question for you: if given the choice between locally grown, non-organic produce, vs. South American, organic produce, which do you pick? I used to be team organic, but now I'm team local. Obviously local + organic is the best.
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I go for the organic but not a fan of stuff that's travelled, if avoidable. I do like supporting local farmers, which is kind of a sad joke in Toronto, as we paved over an insane amount of fertile land over the past 25 years (since Harris deregulated land use).

What you say is funny because my ex went vegetarian on me for about 5 years. I rarely ate meat during that time. Just at work, as I was a bartender at the time. She kept complaining about feeling listless and I kept saying, eat some red meat. Pfft, was the response until she did a full-on elimination diet to identify the source. Naturopath told her to eat more red meat. We never looked back. lol
 
Preston said:
The food snobbery around these parts is intense. I get roasted for being a food snob in my day to day but I'm nothing compared to this crowd.

At the end of the day I'm part of the "eat whatever the **** you like" camp.
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I'm no snob. I happily share what I prepare regularly (with other food snobs).
 
My brother, who is an environmental scientist, would get a kick out of all this "organic" talk. I have no opinion either way but I'm tempted to show him just to watch his brain melt.
 
BeLeafer said:
Well, the label gets used quite liberally, particularly if you shop in supermarkets like Loblaws.
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That's because there is no meaning. The standards for claiming organic are basically nonexistent.

Oh god I'm sounding like that maniac now.
 
Preston said:
That's because there is no meaning. The standards for claiming organic are basically nonexistent.

Oh god I'm sounding like that maniac now.
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Nah, there's ceritification processes (some better than others). It's tough to convert a farm to organic.
 
Preston said:
That's because there is no meaning. The standards for claiming organic are basically nonexistent.

Oh god I'm sounding like that maniac now.
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I mean, there are certification bodies. But I agree with the general premise.

Go to any market and most vendors claim to be 'organic' without evidence or certification.
 
Term has a lot of issues — for example, one of the butchers I go to carries chicken from Mennonites. They haven’t altered their methods in centuries, the product is completely organic but they don’t want to pay anyone to certify it as such, so it’s not considered organic.

There’s a lot of marketing dollars attached to the term, so while I’ll often buy organic, I’m not sure it’s the panacea people claim it is.
 
Yeah, it's not my battle and I don't really know enough about it. He has a whole spiel about the certification process too. Him and his colleagues claim it's all bullshit but I'm sure there are some good ones out there.
 
CH1 said:
Term has a lot of issues — for example, one of the butchers I go to carries chicken from Mennonites. They haven’t altered their methods in centuries, the product is completely organic but they don’t want to pay anyone to certify it as such, so it’s not considered organic.
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Part of the certification is to ensure the land is free of chemical inputs but also the types of feed and such. We get Mennonite farmers at the local markets. I'll buy from them but their stuff doesn't show up in shops (at least the ones I frequent).

There’s a lot of marketing dollars attached to the term, so while I’ll often buy organic, I’m not sure it’s the panacea people claim it is.
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I don't think it's a panacea for much beyond removing chemical inputs from the soil and water and helping to sustain family farms (organic is not really scalable).
 
I'll buy grass fed meat over organic meat given the choice, provided some other things are good (no antibiotics, hormones, humane hubandry).
 
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