Dr. Frank lays down a fine rant on the upscale grocery store Whole Foods and why he doesn't shop there:
So I avoid Whole Foods as much as I possibly can, not only because of what they have there, but because of what they don't have. I mean, they don't have normal stuff like mayonnaise or ketchup or regular breakfast cereal. True, you can go in there and spend $200 on a bag containing eight tiny items, among which is a jar full of a funky substance from somewhere in the Andes that is "better than mayonnaise" because the simple, honest, lovely, gentle people of the rainforest have "really good food" and don't need our rapacious Western ways.
But it costs more per ounce than aged single malt, tastes kind of weird and smells like ass.
Sometimes you just want some regular mayonnaise on your sandwich. Is that so wrong?
Plus, I can't stand the self-satisfied expressions on all the Whole Foods shoppers' faces when they're caressing the tiny jar of Andes-mayonnaise and doing their little "yay! yay! it's organic!" dance. I know that's unworthy of me. But they irritate the hell out of me.
Hat tip to Richard Bennett who adds this:
Just between you and me, I'm pretty sure a lettuce doesn't know whether a particular molecule of nitrogen came out of a bag of ammonium nitrate or from a pile of cow shit. Really. Heh... Pretty much sums it up. I do prefer organically grown food because that label also sets limits on residual pesticides and the food is generally fresher but it is very easy to go waaay overboard with the small (expensive) jars of carob-hemp-funk...
This comes from the guy who, when I first met him, had soy mayonaise in his fridge and objected when I bought a jar of Best Foods (Hellman's).