The produce world
I've let one of my favorite websites, Oligopoly Watch, sit around gathering cobwebs on my RSS feeder; so, I'm wandering through it today. This article about produce caught my eye.
Bagged salad, for example, is something that did not exist before 1990. That has its own interesting economics. AN article in The Guardian ("Bugs, Sweat and fears", 5/1/2004) traces that category in the UK, but the trends are likely similar in the US or in other industrialized countries. Author Felicity Lawrence's observartions:
* 2/3 of UK households buy bagged salads regularly
* The value of the UK salad vegetable market grew by 90% between 19912 and 2002
* But overall salad volumes had grown only by 18% in that period
* Conclusion: People were paying a lot more for almost the same amount of salad.
* New packaging which seals cut greens in the optimum air mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide gives these salads a much lengthen shelf life (10 days or more). This allows salad vegetables to be sourced anywhere around the world.
* Scientific tests from the Rome Institute of Food and Nutrition have indicated severe loss of vitamins and anti-oxidants from the bagged salad due to preparation techniques. This is also due to the use of chlorine to disinfect the salad and kill any bugs, listeria, and ecoli.
* These salads, more than ever, are prepared in massive, intensive farms using illegal labor.
I found the original Guardian article reproduced here.
Bagged salad, for example, is something that did not exist before 1990. That has its own interesting economics. AN article in The Guardian ("Bugs, Sweat and fears", 5/1/2004) traces that category in the UK, but the trends are likely similar in the US or in other industrialized countries. Author Felicity Lawrence's observartions:
* 2/3 of UK households buy bagged salads regularly
* The value of the UK salad vegetable market grew by 90% between 19912 and 2002
* But overall salad volumes had grown only by 18% in that period
* Conclusion: People were paying a lot more for almost the same amount of salad.
* New packaging which seals cut greens in the optimum air mix of oxygen and carbon dioxide gives these salads a much lengthen shelf life (10 days or more). This allows salad vegetables to be sourced anywhere around the world.
* Scientific tests from the Rome Institute of Food and Nutrition have indicated severe loss of vitamins and anti-oxidants from the bagged salad due to preparation techniques. This is also due to the use of chlorine to disinfect the salad and kill any bugs, listeria, and ecoli.
* These salads, more than ever, are prepared in massive, intensive farms using illegal labor.
I found the original Guardian article reproduced here.
posted by Solomon | 6:57 AM
1 Comments:
Solomon, this post really speaks to me as a former produce clerk!
I remember the onslaught of "value added" product. We had one whole table in the produce dept. dedicated to bagged salad, cubed melon, husked corn, cored pineapple, etc, etc. (out of 8 tables)
This stuff was 5 times the cost of the produce sitting a table a way.
But remember, a distant cousin of mine said: "Give me convience or give me death." Errr, or was the Jello Biafra.
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