This is not a great picture, but it proves another point. There is a difference. What used to seem the best option, now doesn’t seem so best anymore.
Our two classes made chicken broth the exact same way, but one class used organic chicken, the other used “air chilled” but not organic. The chicken was bought the same day from the same place and made the next day. Which would you rather use? (the one on the left is the organic chicken).
Lets look at a bigger picture – if you’ve walked into the newly remodeled Whole Foods lately, you will also notice that the produce section has changed. Maybe this isn’t a fair time of year to comment (almost halfway through February), but almost everything didn’t have the farm details, because most of it wasn’t local. Most also was not organic, and there was no chard, which is one of the local crops that should be easy to get. Maybe I just happened to be there at the wrong time, but it does feel like the supply chain is changing – again. This has happened to some of the most well meaning restaurants also, it is hard to get large quantities of local, sustainably minded food. Its a constantly changing situation because of so many different factors, that in the end, simmer down to profit. Everyone has to make a living but I want to be able to make honest choices.
So, my vigilance is renewed: read labels, read labels, read labels. And go to the farmer’s markets for everything without a label.
