Supply and Debate

We have a small downtown area. It's not thriving. We're trying to get it there, but it's struggling right now. A brave little bakery opened down there, and they actually are staying pretty busy, I think. We go in there quite a bit, they must put something addictive in their cupcakes.

Sometimes they run out of cupcakes. On Sundays, they say they are open til 4pm or until they have no more cupcakes. Seems fair. My husband at first thought this was a little uncool, that they run out of product, that you run the risk of not having what you want there. We talked about it a little more. Is it? Is it a bad thing to sell out, or worse to have to throw stuff out at the end of the day? Obvious answer.

At a small bakery like this, you can't always predict how a day will go. Maybe there's a run on cupcakes, but then maybe it's a slow day, so how do you gauge? Make WAY too many, stock like all the big stores do with way way too much... that's a waste of resources. Let's think about it. What IS better?

Some people will look at it from the opposite way, of course, you know they will. Because, they want what they want and they want it now. Heaven forbid the store be out of what they want when they took the time and bother to stop in. Such an inconvenience. There was a time where you couldn't have everything right at your fingertips all of the time. You learned to be the early bird, or to be smart (well THAT changed), or to do without until you got it the next time. Or planned ahead. Go figure. But some people will say, "They ran out and I went through all the trouble to be here? I'm never coming here again if they can't have enough for ME!" And the store will have lost that person's business forever. So make too much and throw it out? Or because we are in a small town and we realize that sometimes running out can happen because it's a small business, and we play the odds and forgive them, say, "Hah, I'll catch you next time!" and realize that if that's the worst thing that happens to you, your shop ran out of your favorite cupcakes, that you're doing OK.

Did we value things more when there was a risk of missing out on things? When there wasn't so much excess? When we had to think, when we had to plan, when everything wasn't so easy and accessible? I ask this over and over, I know. Because we're still doing it.

I applaud that tiny little place for running out, even if it's just 11am and WOW how many did they make anyway? I hope their business steadily grows so that if they end up making more and more, they still sell out every day. I hope we can learn to value things again.

I don't really see it happening, but I can hope. I mean, it happens to me here and there... hoping. Sometimes it hits me. Of course, then I come to my senses again.

Two, Two Wastes in One!

Oh good. SHEW. I was worried we didn't have enough microwaveable lunch products. I thought maybe we were running out. Not to worry! Barilla has come out with THEIR own version of the healthy Microwaveable Meal. Just 1 minute to prepare! 100% natural ingredients and no preservatives.

(By the by, arsenic is 100% natural. So is mercury. Just sayin'.)

Women's Health even named the Whole Grain Fusilli with Vegetable Marinara on of the "Best Packaged Foods for Women"! Yay.

Thanks to the blog I grabbed this image from. Please stop.

Naturally, because I had to share, I checked them out all over the place. They are even worse than originally believed. See, not only do you have the non-recyclable #5 bowl for the pasta, you get a SECOND smaller bowl for the sauce!

One bowl thrown into the Gyre is not enough for some people. Two is ever so much better.

We should eat these every day. They're so healthy and so... so... what's the word?

Oh yeah. Convenient.

Does it ever feel like we're taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back, or is that just me?

We can't take away all the plastic we've added to our environment. What's here is never going away. All we can do is NOT add any more! But factories in China have to keep making, we have to keep buying, and the oceans get to keep filling. Please stop. What sucks is, even if we stopped THIS SECOND, right now, while you are reading, I fear it's a long way back from the edge. Or we went over the edge. I don't know. All I know is we HAVE to STOP.

What is it going to take?

Committed - One Plastic Bottle at a Time

I cannot get over what companies will do to trot out how responsible and eco-friendly they are when their product IS ALL IN PLASTIC SINGLE-USE BOTTLES! It never ends!!!! 

A friend pointed out that they received samples of bottled water WITH their newspaper. Meaning, they really couldn't refuse it, it just came to their home. The kicker was on the back, on the BACK of the PLASTIC BOTTLE, it said, "Carbon Neutral Product." Great. I'm so relieved, here I thought there might be something environmentally inherently BAD about your product, in a single-use plastic bottle. But since it says carbon-neutral right on the label, I sure feel SO much better.

This friend did not want to out the brand. I have no such compunction, so I asked her, she told me, I'm outing them. 

And here's what they have to say about being a concerned, eco-friendly bottled water company (my comments, of course, are in parenthesis after each scintillating statement):

ICELANDIC GLACIAL IS COMMITTED TO PROTECTING & PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT (uh huh) This commitment is evident throughout our company and every aspect of our supply chain including raw materials, energy usage and distribution of product to consumers, including all ocean shipments. (Oh DO go on...) SUSTAINABLE SOURCE The Ölfus Spring is naturally replenished from mountains in the north of Iceland. Using less than .1% of the overflow to the sea of the Ölfus Spring in its bottling operation, Icleandic Glacial is a careful steward of this precious resource. As a result, Zenith International, Europe’s leading food and drinks consultancy, has declared the Ölfus Spring certifiably sustainable. (You don't say?) POWERING THE PLANT Our facility is fully run on naturally green energy (hydro and geothermal). (Well, that's actually pretty cool. Go on! I'm listening.) PACKAGING Our commitment to the fight against global warming is also reflected in our packaging, which is 100% recyclable. The outer case packaging of Icelandic Glacial is made from 75% recyclable packaging. Consistent with our initiatives to further reduce our carbon emissions, we have also achieved a 10% reduction in our PET preform weights since 2008. (Recyclable, you say. Please show me the percentage of your bottles that YOU are collecting as a company and thus ensuring this is happening. Just because you say it can be done doesn't mean it's getting done. You have passed that responsibility on to the consumer. The Bottled Water Association claims that in 2011, 38.6% of bottles were recycled. http://www.wasterecyclingnews.com/article/20130220/NEWS02/130229987/plastic-water-bottle-recycling-rate-jumps-almost-20 1) I'm not sure I believe them, consider the source and 2) that still a hell of a lot of bottles out there. Billions, still. So please tell me again how this is OK.) SHIPPING Once bottled, we utilize space on cargo vessels that would otherwise be returning to the US and Europe empty. Our low emission shipping policy allows us to get our water into your hands while leaving the smallest carbon footprint possible. (The smallest carbon footprint possible would be to NOT drink water from thousands of miles away. If we were meant to drink your water, we would already live there.) CARBON NEUTRAL After working with the CarbonNeutral® Company in 2007, a leading carbon emissions consultant, Icelandic Glacial was certified as CarbonNeutral® for both its product and operations – an unprecedented move in the beverage industry. We have made a commitment to assess our CO2 emissions and reduce them wherever possible on an ongoing basis. Only once this full process has been carried out and a net-zero carbon footprint achieved, can a company carry the CarbonNeutral® Company stamp of approval. Our efforts have been rewarded with international recognition, most notably winning the 2007 Bottled Water World Design Awards for Best Sustainability Initiative presented at the Global Bottled Water Congress. (Blah... blah... blah... To me, that sounds like, let's compare which nuclear waste is better and give it awards for being less nuclear waste-y.)   Forgive me if I don't do backflips over how wonderful your product is. And tell me I'm wrong about single-use plastic bottles. And tell me again how this doesn't sit in trucks and warehouses after it was so lovingly shipped in already-coming cargo containers, in heat, only to leach something other than BPA that we don't yet know about into the water. Oh, and above all, please tell me what chemicals DO comprise your plastic bottles. You can't, can you? Because THAT'S a proprietary secret that only the plastic manufacturers know, and we won't find out there is something just as FUN as BPA still in there until... when? The truth of the matter is, once this leaves you plant, which I'm sure is wonderful, you get to pretty much wash your hands (heh little water joke there) of the whole thing and don't really have to care about what happens anymore.  Right? Right.