‘Religion Without a Godhead:’ Today’s Food Fetishists
At Just One Minute today, poster Thomas Collins observed:
Today I was in a Whole Foods grocery store. There was a sign advising folks buying organic coffee to grind the coffee at home, because the Whole Foods coffee grinders accommodate both organic and non-organic coffee. The sign also cautioned organic veggie and fruit buyers to put their organic stuff in separate bags. Now, Whole Foods seems to me to be a pretty savvy, customer oriented chain. From this sign, I conclude that there are significant numbers of people who can’t bear the thought that their organic coffee and arugula may have touched something non-organic. There were also signs that some of the meat had been grass fed, whatever that is supposed to do.
Another Just One Minute poster, Matt, captured my feelings on this nonsense exactly:
The new fetish is basically religion without a Godhead; a squishy I’m okay, you’re not okay unless you observe exactly the same rituals that I do.
These are the same people who cannot make the intellectual jump from cross bred foods, fruits, and vegetables to GM. They get sucked into a vortex of fear and confusion out of ignorance.
It’s okay in that religion to create human body parts hosted by swine or grown from stem cells, but Gaia forbid you get your pure, organically and sustainably grown family farm hydroponic arugula anywhere near the Wonder Bread.
Oooh ooh, my carrots are touching the peas on my plate. Mommy, I can’t eat this???? Separate them for me PLEASE!!!!! there there, poor baby, let Mommy make it better…. Good Grief!!
You haven’t been paying attention to the Cult of the Warm Earth, have you?
I have–with disdain, but this takes the cake as it were. Separate coffee grinders. Next they’ll separate meat and milk and Passover and non-Passover.
Doggone it, Clarice. It’s only because I had to wait until after Shabbat to read this post that you beat me to it.
Heh.. Well,Joshua, there are other rewards for which I am sure you’ll qualify ahead of me.
Whole Foods feeds, as it were, all manner of idiocy, and this is right up there. For more on Whole Foods’ anti-Israeli
commerce, read this http://squaremilewife.blogspot.com/2011/05/whole-foods-hearts-palestine-committed.html
and http://www.debbieschlussel.com/5046/welcome-to-palestinian-fair-trade-olive-oil-sold-whole-foods-funds-study-anti-semitic-pro-hamas-universities-dr-bronners-soap-too/
As the second blog revealed, in 2009, “Palestinians in terrorist hotbed Jenin–home to many homicide bomb belt assembly lines–have started this new thing called “Canaan Fair Trade,” also known as the ‘Palestinian Fair Trade Association.’ You see, the people who lived in Israel and around the area when the Jews were exiting slavery in Egypt were the Canaanites. They’re extinct. They warred with the Jews, and they lost. And even though any historian with any credibility and any archeologist of any worth will acknowledge that the ancient Canaanites are long gone (as in, for centuries), some Palestinians claim they are the Canaanites. It’s blatant propaganda and fodder for a good laugh, considering that Arabs were not anywhere near the area at that time. Not even close.
Now, Palestinians are pushing this myth again, along with the “fair trade” concept. Only, their “fair trade” is slightly different. You see, they want special treatment for growers who basically all support Islamic terrorists. And–this is key–they want special treatment in the marketplace against more competitive Israeli and Arab products. Welcome to “Canaan Fair Trade,” products made by terrorism supporters in the shadow of the “evil Zionists.” And for that, you should pay a premium.
Their biggest, newest product is Canaan Fair Trade Olive Oil. Its label re-asserts the myth of the Palestinians as Canaanites and also asserts that “Palestine” is a country. And proceeds from the sale of the olive oil funds scholarships for study at anti-Semitic, pro-HAMAS universities, including An-Najah in Nablus and the Arab American University in Jenin.
An Najah’s student council is controlled by HAMAS, and it openly endorsed homicide bombings on Israeli civilians. The school staged a re-enactment of the blowing up of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem, as well as staged mock explosions of Israeli soldiers, to the laughing and cheering delight of students.
Sadly, Whole Foods markets are selling this pan-terrorist olive oil. If you are a patron of Whole Foods, you should ask the store why it is selling olive oil made by terrorism supporters, which funds study at anti-Semitic universities, and why Whole Foods is tacitly taking a political stand by featuring products with labels claiming Palestine is a country and that Canaan is there.
Whole Foods has already officially recognized “Palestine” on its Whole Story Whole Foods Blog, in which it features an article about how Dr. Bronner’s Magical Soaps use Olive Oil from the Palestinian Fair Trade Association. (If you buy Dr. Bronner’s products, you are also funding scholarships to anti-Semitic An-Najah U.)”
hehe im going to a place that boasts “no animal products” and “organic beer”..ORGANIC BEER!?!?!? does anyone thing that when im getting hammered, im worried about ddt….hell i been to kentucky where people made moonshine aith kereosene for cryin out loud!
One of my favorite takes on Whole Foods recently was this one by Claire Berlinski: “I’m simultaneously so attracted and so repelled. The place is the biggest shrine to pagan crop-worshipping hippie-dipple Gaia-is-our-mother intolerable woo-woo sucker-born-every-minute food neurosis nonsense I have ever seen, but the food is totally great.” I do shop at the place on occasion, but every time I’m in line there, I have to wonder if the cashiers ever amuse themselves by trying to ascertain the shoppers’ food neuroses as they go through the checkout line (must be a gluten-phobe, seems like a vegan, guess that’s a raw food type, etc.).
“Gluten-phobe”? Really? You’re going to go there? (Are you the jerk who invented the word “homophobe” so he could escape a debate?)
My wife was advised to go on a gluten-free diet, and I went on it with her (since, unlike most people these days, I actually live in the same house with my wife). Pretty rapidly, I found out that, even though I thought I was perfectly healthy before, it turns out I wasn’t. Little stuff, like my hands and feet itching when I was laying in bed at night, to big stuff like seasonal allergies, all cleared up.
I’ve learned that whenever something’s wrong with my body (or even my moods or sleep patterns) I don’t need to add something (a medicine or whatever), I need to subtract something (some stupid food I never should have been eating in the first place).
Regarding my use of the term “gluten-phobe” above, please read the article I linked to with the quote above. That article points out that celiac disease is both severe and rare, but most of the other claimed benefits from avoiding gluten are questionable at best.
I’m neither a gastroenterologist (like the doctor quoted in the article) nor am I an allergist or nutritionist, so I can’t explain the changed symptoms you describe, but it’s very possible that the problems weren’t, strictly-speaking a result of gluten in your diet, and that they were, instead, a result of other nutrients or enzymes in your diet as a result of the new dietary protocols. From other reading I’ve done on nutrition I also know that some people who claim to be “gluten-sensitive” often don’t have problems with grains containing gluten if they’re prepared in specific ways–so the problem might not be with “gluten-sensitivity” but with contemporary food-preparation techniques. (Then again, there’s a whole group of people who follow the “paleo diet” who believe all grains are bad, despite their inclusion in human diets for thousands of years.)
“Thousands of years” doesn’t make anything right. It just makes it habit.
There’s an excellent passage in “Paradise Lost” after The Fall, when an angel (Gabriel or Michael; I don’t remember which) takes Adam to the top of a mountain and makes him gaze out into the future. Adam sees people wailing in distress and wallowing in misery with boils on their skin. The angel tells him [paraphrasing], “These are all the diseases that Man will suffer because he sees food as gluttonous delight instead of due nourishment.”
In my opinion, food as entertainment has worked out just as well as sex for entertainment – a huge source of misery, but we can’t stop ourselves. Humans are just like bears: They’d be great if they ate what’s right, but show ‘em a heap of garbage and they throw out all sense and gravitate to the garbage.
Golly, I hate puritans. What is it about pleasure–even licit pleasure–that so distresses you? Actually, I don’t care as long as you inflict your misery on yourself alone.Why equate delicious food with garbage and assume people will choose that ? Pheh/
It seems to me bears are doing all right. I have sympathy for bears – they behave naturally.
As for your trouble, a simple placebo sugar pill might do the job as well unless you are diabetic. Works on neurotics most of the time.
Occasionally a person finds a diet that works well for them or discovers some component of their current diet that was making them sick. Sometimes they believe they’ve found THE secret of human health and happiness, THE diet that everyone should be on because it’s “natural.” It can be like a personal affront to question their choice of foods. But people come from all different parts of the world and their ancestors ate many different diets. This affects which foods are “normal” for them and how they tolerate other kinds of food. Then there are individual differences. Supposedly, northern Europeans should all be able to enjoy dairy products, but there are plenty of lactose-intolerant people of European ancestry. So if you find a diet that works for you, that’s excellent. But don’t think it’s the solution for all mankind’s health issues.
I think you might be right there. I can eat the bread I make from scratch with absolutely no problems. Other whole-wheat bread can make me sick to my stomach. I tend to avoid bread because of it, thinking that it is gluten. But that doesn’t make sense at all!
Thanks. Great comment. Now I have to go make more bread.
Whole Foods, Half Wits.
I’ve been calling the “organic” obsession “goyishe kashrut” for some time.
Well, you were right, it would seem. Imagine separate coffee grinders.
Can’t I imagine whirled peas instead?
Nice one
haha
Well having grown up in a farm area, and being fond of farm-raised beef, I can tell you that grass-fed beef just tastes better. That being said, it’s not like there’s some moral superiority to grass-fed beef as opposed to a steer that’s finished in a feedlot. They both end up as hamburger…
From what I’ve read, the fat profile of grass-fed beef is different from grain-fed beef. There’s a different balance of Omega-3′s and Omega-6′s which is supposed to be more beneficial. With that in mind, I do make an effort to buy grass-fed beef more often, though I don’t buy it very often as it is very expensive.
I could care less if it’s healthier, it just tastes better.
This is a delicious post, Clarice. Separate bags. Wow. My favorite part about Whole Foods is that they refuse to sell anything as commercially sugary as Coca-Cola, but a stroll by their bakery department could clog your arteries just by looking at all the buttery, sugary confections on offer. It is the most, “will you please get a life and get over yourself” franchise in America. I hope someday, somewhere a McDonalds will open right next door and drive Whole Foods’ devotees into spasms of protest.
I remember when they started up they had a sugar ban, but I believe they dropped that a long time ago.
Still no Coca Cola. If the ban isn’t based on sugar content, then it must be because of the evil chemicals lurking in the bottles.
Doesn’t fit their image and there is no use taking up shelf space that will anger the customer that will pay $20 for an organically-grown, electric-vehicle transported kumquat that was picked by a grass-fed indigenous farm worker.
No real profit in Coca Cola. Most groceries carry items like that because it brings in customers. Profits are in specialty foods, bakery, wine, and deli. The everyday staples are often loss leaders.
Whole foods is brilliant because they cary only high profit items and can still bring in customers. Psychologically customers will often choose a more expensive item even if there is no real difference.
Oragnics is nothing but a brilliant marketing strategy aimed at our beleifs and feelings about food which we are already obsessed about.
Right now the demon is high fructose corn syrup–sugar’s back “in”.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576427693903949786.html
I only shop at Whole Foods because of their animal welfare policies. I love animals but not so much that I believe its wrong to eat certain types of them. I feel better knowing that they were treated humanely before until the end of their lives.
Other than that I would not darken the door of a Whole Foods. I agree with all the main criticisms above. I go in, get my meat (as cheap as I can find it) and get out. But in the meantime, I can’t help but wonder at the people who shop there spending hundreds of dollars a trip. Either they have so much money that they don’t have to worry about it even in this economy or else they are tapping into the kids college fund to feed their habit.
So these organic foodies have to be told to separate their organic stuff from non-organic stuff?
Even dumber when you consider that if they are buying both types of foods they are probably just going to eat them together. How can putting them in a bag together be worse than putting them in your stomach together?
Why I am not a Green: I don’t believe Gaia (the Greens’ word for God) has it in for hamburgers.
Why I am not a Jew: I don’t believe God has it in for cheeseburgers.
Why I am not a Moslem: I don’t believe Allah (the Moslems’ word for God) has it in for bacon cheeseburgers.
Its interesting that religion has been playing into lot of different things, politics, and places…….even in stores worldwide. I have done much research and the first religion on earth was Sumerian. Interestingly enough we are taught in Christianity not to judge and most religions say do not judge, but are we not raised to not hang out with anyone who is not our religion??
This is a great post and I am actually a whole foods shopper myself.
Great post that actually got me to typing in a rant lol.