Published on: February 23, 2009
One
MNB user had some thoughts about the possibility that the Obama administration will embrace country of origin labeling (COOL) to a degree that it was not by the Bush administration:
COOL may have been pushed by American farmers and ranchers wishing to further their own interests, OH what a surprise(!), nonetheless it server other issues as well.
For those of us wanting to buy local – COOL should be CCCOOL, or CSCOOL, city, county, country or city, state, country. Some places are better than others when it comes to food safety. I will not buy products with Chinese ingredients. I have stopped buying many processed products totally from companies that I do not know or companies that I do no know where they source their ingredients. Yes, I am one of those Organic buyers and a “health nut”. I am one of those people who have changed their purchasing habits because of all the bad press from China and here in the USA. I am sure every country has their “peanut” people and most manufacturers are ethical.
The problem is one cannot tell who is ethical and who isn’t, nor can one tell whom the ethical companies buy ingredients from. Our government certainly has little concern and less knowledge when it comes to food safety. I do eat at restaurants so I suppose I could called “hypocritical”. My feeling is that I will control what I can control. I hope restaurants get put in the same COOL package.Responding to last week’s
MNB Radio rant,
MNB user John Moffitt wrote:
I got a chuckle from your piece about eliminating the word “always” from our vocabularies (Hot Blood, Cold Blood & Defining Always). I once had a mentor who would tell me “never say never, and never say always.” It was somewhat of an ambiguous saying, but I always knew what he meant.My proposal that modern technology makes it worthwhile for food retailers to consider getting rid of their publications sections and replacing them with more modern and relevant offerings continues to generate email:
Perhaps it is just part of my cost conscious lifestyle but I can't remember the last time I have purchased a magazine at any retailer. One issue of MONEY is $4.99 at the newsstand - a one-year subscription costs about $12. {I never pay full price for a magazine subscription either.] Other than the Tabloids at the checkout counters, I also don't remember seeing anyone else buying a magazine at retailers either. At Barnes and Noble the magazine rack seems to be more of a public library - people reading but not buying. When you look at all of those magazines there you wonder what the turnover rate is. Our local library allows you to check out past issues of magazines for a week - online renewal for another week. This is an excellent frugal person option for non-time sensitive material such as Discover.I waxed rhapsodic last Friday, as I have before, about my Kindle…and talked about the smart marketing idea that Amazon.com had to commission Stephen King to write a novella, “UR,” that is a kind of “Twilight Zone” story about a Kindle with unusual features…and that, as it happens, is only available to be downloaded by people who have a Kindle.
MNB user Alan Lamb responded:
Maybe UR is a great story. Maybe if I read it I'd be encouraged to buy a Kindle.
But I'm not going to buy a Kindle in order to read it!
I already have general purpose computing machines, fixed and mobile, which cost a lot of money and every month I pay even more just to stay connected to the Internet. I don't want to buy another gadget and then pay more for the restricted content. This is similar to the satellite radio systems that require you to buy dedicated technology and then continue to pay for content. That format seems to be having trouble making a profit and could easily join the dead pool. I already have enough technology that requires obsolete content formats (audio cassette players, video cassette players, vinyl record turntables, and various sizes of computer diskettes).
Maybe if I could write off the cost as a business expense it would make some sense but meanwhile I can borrow unlimited books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, etc. from my local library's enormous catalog for free.Look, I agree that the Kindle is not for everyone, and that appreciation for this kind of technology may to a degree be generational. For the record, access to literature via the Kindle does not require a fee, and is actually less expensive than buying a physical book. (Newspaper and magazine subscriptions also are less expensive.) But, I concede, not as inexpensive as going to the library. For those of us, however, who spend a lot of time on the road and traveling, this kind of technology is a wonderful innovation that offers a window on the future.
MNB user Glenn E. Harmon understood:
You should hit Amazon up for a commission on Kindles. I hadn’t even finished your blog before I paged over and ordered one w/ the optional cover. $398. Even Oprah’s book club doesn’t command that kind of price tag for an impulse buy. I wonder how many people did the same… It’s scheduled to arrive on March 2nd. In the mean time, I’ll be lugging around my books.Oprah and me. Go figure.
Finally, I noted last week that a strategy being embraced by7-Eleven was “doable.”
Which led one
MNB user to write:
I love MNB, but please, it's "feasible," not "doable." Despite its increasing usage in spoken language, "doable" is simply not a word. Let's try to maintain a modicum of integrity in the English language.I hate to have to use this phrase twice in one day, but here goes…
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.I’m not convinced, by the way, that the critical
MNB user is not Sister John Aquin, who at Sts. John & Paul Elementary School used to beat such lessons into me back in second grade with a hard ruler and an even harder attitude. She says she’s not, but I’m not convinced.