Shopping for food was a much more personal experience prior to the invention of the supermarket. The milkman and the baker delivered milk and bread via wagons. People went to the grocer for dried goods, the greengrocer for vegetables, the fishmonger for fish, and the butcher for meat. Few outside of professional chefs have the inclination and time for such specialized shopping today. Supermarkets have empowered consumers with self-service, but the impersonal nature of modern shopping shifts much of the quality-control responsibility onto the consumer. Empowerment for the shopper could also bring about a declining sense of accountability on the part of the food purveyor.
Such is the case with case-ready beef, obviating the role of the butcher and deceiving the consumer via modified atmospheric packaging. Marian Burros’ article in the New York Times listed a few of the markets that offer carbon-monoxide treated beef:
In New York City, it is sold at 30 Gristede's stores, at D'Agostino markets under the labels Laura's Lean Beef and Creekstone's, and at the Morton Williams stores in the Associated chain. A spokeswoman for Safeway did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages about sale of the treated meat there, but it was available at a Safeway market in Bethesda, Md., earlier this month. SuperTarget stores are also selling it, and Wal-Mart reports carrying it in 150 stores. (Marian Burros, The New York Times, 21 February 2006)
The predictable reaction for concerned omnivores would be either to avoid eating beef or avoid these markets altogether. Local markets like Gristedes, Morton Williams, Associated and D’Agostino, belong to First Epoch of food shopping, according to the classification by Chris Smith (New York Magazine, 24 May 2004). These markets had a near monopoly on New York food supply until the Second Epoch, Korean greengrocers whose fresh fruit, produce, and dairy offered an attractive alternative to the touch-and-go goods at the supermarket. In the Third Epoch, New Yorkers may simply purchase untainted meat in the, organic, hormone-free, locally-grown, free-range, socially-aware aisles of upscale mega-markets like Whole Foods or the New York gourmet stores: Balducci’s, Fairway, Gourmet Garage, etc.
The troubling part of this food-avoidance game is the socio-economic class considerations that create luxury items of healthy un-tampered foods. There is no justification for this. To be certain, the manipulation of the food supply at the hands of lobbies and big agri-business in the form of (1) genetic engineering without proper examination of health risks, (2) excessive and dangerous use of pesticides and antibiotics, (3) bulking up foods with HFCS, and (4) modified atmospheric packaging without labeling, is a problem. On the other hand, the ecofriendlier-than-thou sanctimony of the urban natural foods set is offensive when the choice to be high-minded in these matters is not an economic option for many in the city. Basic healthy food ought to be available to everyone. Yet, as disparities between the rich and poor widen in all areas of basic living—healthcare, housing, education—we can see the social stratification in the food we eat.
