Comments on: A Cut Throat Industry

By: phil

phil — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:23:22 +0000

Great article.
Just to be concise here, there is no need to hate on the food industry. They provide people with what they want to buy - food that is cheap and tastes good. Health food doesn’t sell near as well as junk, let’s face it. The majority of consumers are not health conscientious, and thus the market is a reflection of that.
The real problem, in economic terms, is that there is a market failure in the food industry. A market failure happens when there is asymmetric information. In this case, the seller knows more about the quality if the product than the buyer. People who want to spend more for the assurance of quality can’t do it, because the poor quality products look just like the good quality products.
I’ve heard one solution for this is the Kosher Seal. Hopefully we will find a nationwide solution for this before we all die of cancer!

By: Calvin Wallace

Calvin Wallace — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:33:45 +0000

You’re right, it SHOULDN’T cost more…. but the true fact is that it does cost more to buy organic foods. It’s almost at the very least, a dollar more for everything organic.

By: Ante Goreta

Ante Goreta — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:32:57 +0000

Organic food shouldn’t be more expensive than conventional. And you will never be able to eat 100% organic, there will always be something that isn’t organic. Just do your best you can, work around. For example, I don’t buy pasteurized and homogenized milk from store, I rather make a 30 min ride once a week to a local farmer and get it from him and other foods (ex. eggs, fruits), where I can see how he treats and interacts with his animals and plants. Things you can’t changem you won’t change and don’t obsess with it, but things you can improve there is no excuse to not improve them.

By: Calvin Wallace

Calvin Wallace — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:17:23 +0000

I can’t afford organic food. Thus, I fall into the trap and the cycle continues.