Thanks
Toney

Try to eat your way through winter on Pennsylvania’s bounty: I cannot eat wheat or other gluten-rich foods. Corn is a simple carb and hard to digest. Tomatoes and potatoes are nightshades and a bad staple around which to plan a winter-long diet. I don’t know anyone who mills acorns into flower. Venison over-consumption can lead to lead poisoning because of the lead in the ammunition. I doubt our rivers have enough fish to feed our modern-sized population. We don’t have greenhouses set up to produce fresh vegetables and greens throughout winter. I suppose I could eat a lot of local factory-farmed chicken and eggs, but if all Pennsylvanians did that, it would drive up the prices out of my price-range. Do I spend three months eating dried fruits, chestnuts and squash?

Problems with globalization, including colonization, imperialism and the spread of disease, have existed for over hundreds of years. You’re not going to put that genie back into the bottle. How about acknowledging the benefits of of living in what is, after all, a small world, and getting together with folks from around the world to address the shortcomings of the way we currently conduct the business of being curious, adventurous, hungry humans?

This seems the grossest of wastefulness. There are plenty of local Californian farmers who produce magnificent local foods, and those make more economic and ecological sense.

It seems that if your company actually cares about the environment that you would not promote foods from so far away – foods that come at a premium in cost and which waste so many resources.

As for sustaining other cultures – a quick study of any social study will show that where 1st world nations export crops from sustainable indigenous communities – those communities are subject to rapid social change – often unstable – and a reduction of their ability to be self-sustaining.

In other words – buy and shop locally.

I think your store has an obligation to reveal the true costs of exportation – and reveal the many subsidies that make food appear to be cheaper – when in fact – it costs much much more.

Oil is used for plastic to package, for the machined which manufacture the packaging and the foods themselves, it is used to transport the product from farm to production plant, from plant to storage, from storage to port, from port to port, port to warehouse, from warehouse to store, and then from that store to the consumer’s home.

Doesn’t this seem wasteful to you?

We can no longer afford to do business this way. It is not sustainable, rational, or sane.

I will not buy any of these products and I will encourage others not to do as well.

I do not see your stores as anything but a vast indulgence in consumerism. You are no more noble than Working Assets.

Sincerely,

An ex-customer.