Hmm,

so that writer can't even find certainty in the organic health food industry?

"The great thing is that now we're seeing all the global corporations pulling out of the net. Everybody whose been using the net for these coercive purposes are going under. When I was promoting Cyberia, everyone was saying, 'Oh, the companies are going to take over', especially here in the UK. People would say, 'How can you be so naive, the bad guys are going to come.' And I said, 'Let them come. They'll build all this stuff, they won't be able to make any money and they'll go away, leaving behind the infrastructure for everyone else to use.' And that's what happened. What the corporations didn't take into account was that interactive media would create a more media savvy audience, which is what my previous book, Media Virus! and certainly Children of Chaos is about. There's a generation of people growing up who understand the language of media like natives and they just can't be coerced using these techniques anymore."

--from http://www.spikemagazine.com/0297rush.php

Where oh where can certainty be found,

Inannawhimsey

Perhaps, except in this case the consumer is not aware that the product may have been changed and that what they used to eat is not what they are eating now.  The mega corps are making money.

My favourite food and beverage illusion is bottled water which this article briefly speaks on

As for bottled water, egads! That's a whole article in and of itself. The scourge of bottled water, of course, is an environmental disaster on many levels, as corporations have moved in to take control of water local supplies, while some of the same companies and their mega advertising budgets have created a giant market for bottled water, with enormous waste from plastic bottles and giant carbon foot prints as water is shipped over many thousands of miles from Fiji for example, or Italy, when pretty much no bottled water is needed. Frequently, tap water is of higher quality and more closely tested than bottled water. (emphasis mine)

And as Michael Blanding notes on AlterNet, "In fact, many times bottled water is tap water. Contrary to the image of water flowing from pristine mountain springs, more than a quarter of bottled water actually comes from municipal water supplies. The industry is dominated by three companies, who together control more than half the market: Coca-Cola, which produces Dasani; Pepsi, which produces Aquafina; and Nestle, which produces several "local" brands, including Poland Spring, Arrowhead, Deer Park, Ozarka and Calistoga. Both Coke and Pepsi exclusively use tap water for their sources, while Nestle uses tap water in some brands.

Now how many consumers are aware they are paying $3.00 for something they could get for free?

For people who are trying to make a conscious effort, to use their hard earned dollars to make a consumer statement such deception is going to particularly hard to swallow (pun intended).

LB

It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts...      Patrick Henry

I think that one thing that this economic crisis has done is highlights the fact that so much of the financial and commercial world that we deal with on a day to day basis is a huge scam.  Many people I talk to feel really confused and frustrated and helpless.  What can we do?  We try to do the right thing but are we really? How are we supposed to know if a local company has been bought up by something bigger?  How are we supposed to know that the organic potato chips that we buy that used to be made by a family business in PEI are now made by an agribusness in Iowa? 

We are told that something is a good thing and be believe it.  We don't always have the resources or the time to look for the information that we need to determine if it is or not.  I honestly don't think that we ever really will be able to, there are just to many things to find out about and some information we just plain don't have access to even if we had the time.  Even if the media were interested there is just no way to keep up with all the information and then find the time and energy to try to get the government to do something about it.

Well LB, what I get mostly from his article is here is someone who is afraid of her cherished companies selling out. I'm reading her B.S. here and she is fortunate enough to be able to show that to more than one person.

Now, I remember going through that phase. As soon as a band became popular, I'd sneer and say they've 'sold out'.

(heck, I remember learning in elementary school how the products at the supermarket were produced by a few companies. I even remember Adbusters with their 'anti ads')

I think we are being forced to being more mindful, which means we become aware of a basic issue of life: do we try to find certainty outside of ourselves, looking for the ideal corporation or the ideal philosophy or the ideal food, one that causes no harm or the least harm, or do we look within and see how we work and how that works in relation to the outside world.

One is harder than the other. One is easier. One acknowledges the realities we construct, one says there is just only one,

Inannawhimsey

ps don't start me on the bottled water thing. it even affected my sister, who I see as quite a grounded person -- she got so anxious aboot cryptosporidia, that she bought bottled water. i think it just goes to show what Gurdjieff said: we let our past become our future. we are, basically, mechanical.

I remember seeing a product recall for lettuce from California. Half of the brand names said it was organic. The fact is that few small suppliers are able to ship to grocery stores. For the stores, it's too much of a hassle to deal with micro suppliers.

There are some privately owned gourmet or organic stores. But many of these are actually franchises or members of a parent corporation. Then there are Farmer's Markets. But many (Most?) of these"Farmers" really get their produce from the local wholesaler.

"Never give a sucker an even break" - Bob Hope The Lemon Drop Kid.

As for the bottled water flap:

Anyone with a working brain knows that tap water is just as good as bottled water - except for the chlorine. I believe (know) every municipality lies about their chlorine levels. note that it is Municipal councils that want to get rid of bottled water - they don't want you to make comparisons.

In many cities out West you might as well drink it straight out of the Javex bottle. it's somewhat better in Ontario.

My kids drink bottled water. If not - then they will drink Pepsi. They are harder sells than me. I couldn't get them to drink tap water with a gun.

In Salinas, California, where I spent some time, there are monstrous lettuce farms. They are spraying stuff all over the fields.... well except for some rows.... those, my friends, are "organic". The chemicals are in the dirt and the air... it just was not put right on them. That is good enough to say "organic".