An idiot walks into a Farmer’s Market…

So here’s a hilarious story from MSNBC about organic produce. The headline is “Does organic food turn people into jerks?“ It opens with an anecdote from some poor woman who felt totally out of place at a Farmer’s Market in Seattle.

“I stopped at a market to get a fruit platter for a movie night with friends but I couldn’t find one so I asked the produce guy,” says the 40-year-old arts administrator from Seattle. “And he was like, ‘If you want fruit platters, go to Safeway. We’re organic.’ I finally bought a small cake and some strawberries and then at the check stand, the guy was like ‘You didn’t bring your own bag? I need to charge you if you didn’t bring your own bag.’ It was like a ‘Portlandia skit.’ They were so snotty and arrogant.”

Now, I’m not, like, a huge Farmer’s Market fan. I like grocery stores, generally, though I do love finding weird things like wild ramps to cook. That said, this woman is pretty dumb.

Who would go to a Farmer’s Market looking for pre-cut and washed platters of fruit served on a plastic container? That’s just stupid. It’s like going to a church and asking them to pour you a glass of communion wine. Yeah, they could do it, but the point is sorta the opposite.

Also, reusable shopping bags aren’t, like, some newfangled thing. They probably should charge you 25 cents if you need a bag at the check-out. I’m fine with that. Especially at the Farmer’s Market.

Of course this is a serious news story backed by quotes from an actual scientist psychologist named Kendall Eskine, an assistant professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.

“There’s a line of research showing that when people can pat themselves on the back for their moral behavior, they can become self-righteous. I’ve noticed a lot of organic foods are marketed with moral terminology, like Honest Tea, and wondered if you exposed people to organic food, if it would make them pat themselves on the back for their moral and environmental choices. I wondered if they would be more altruistic or not.”

Honest Tea is, of course, a delicious pun. Southerners generally do not enjoy puns, I’ve found, but still… it’s a fucking pun.

So about Eskine’s study….

The methodology was utterly ridiculous. Basically, three sets of people were primed with either photos of organic apples, brownies or random stuff. They did not eat these things, they were just showed them and then presented with a bunch of scenarios where they were asked to make moral judgments.

First, I’m not sure how it matters the apples were organic and the brownies weren’t. It doesn’t. More likely, the issue was fresh produce versus junk food. My uneducated hypothesis is that junk food makes people feel like they have plenty to give and share, plus a little guilty and less judgmental. I’d bet that organic brownies (yeah, you could make ‘em) or GMO apples from Monsanto Family Farm would have roughly the same priming effects. Of course this clown Eskine says that it matters that the apples are organic. He goes so far as to coin the term ‘Organic People’ to label them.

“We found that the organic people judged much harder compared to the control or comfort food groups. On a scale of 1 to 7, the organic people were like 5.5 while the controls were about a 5 and the comfort food people were like a 4.89.”

Again, the ‘Organic People’ were the people randomly showed photos of apples. They were not people who bought or consumed organic produce even once. This idiot should be a lot more careful with his language, here. His explanation? 

“There’s something about being exposed to organic food that made them feel better about themselves. And that made them kind of jerks a little bit, I guess.”

Yes, looking at a photo of an organic apple makes you a jerk. At least according to this stooge. Shame on Eskine, shame on MSNBC and shame on Loyola University and Clown College.

So stupid.

1 year ago  /  1 note