On Thu, 27 Oct 1994 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> bring organic fresh produce to their tables. Their
> suggestions included buying organic produce at one's grocery
> store, buying from farmers' markets and growing one's own
> produce. All of these suggestions assume a rather sub-urban
> (or even rural) and middle class existence. Someone from
> the inner city, who is trying to make a living from paycheck
> to paycheck, & who lives in an apartment, is going to have
> a very hard time trying to follow these suggestions.
Actually, in my experience -- which admittedly was about 15 years ago now
and in Glasgow, Scotland -- the biggest problem was a lack of awareness
and education about dietary alternatives among urban poor and/or working
class. It would have been possible to organize food coops, but the women
I was living near (I say women because in that era and that neighborhood
the men did NO cooking) saw no need to do so. In fact, consuming
packaged goods was a status symbol -- a vicarious way of participating in
the middle class society from which these people were exlcuded almost
completely since the unemployment rate for the community was 80%. I can
see where that would be a real factor in the US were television
advertising reinforces that sense of consumption as identity.
> apartment, and organic produce is not as cheap or as long
> lasting as a can of sloppy joe sauce. So, their suggestions
> are far from universal options.
Not as cheap, but when we had $5 a week to budget for food, dried beans,
rice, etc., were a far better buy. But, again, we had to know what to do
with them and we had to be willing to forego some artifically induced
sense of status through consumption.
Jayne
