Can't...take...this...crap....

The thing that pisses me off about people like this is where do they draw the line? Oh, they draw it where it's most convenient for them.

If you're a vegetarian because you don't want to kill animals, then you're supporting grain harvesting, which kills a lot of "innocent" animals in the process. So unless you produce ALL of your own food, you're supporting the killing of animals one way or the other. Douchebags.

Diane doesn't love me....

that's all right.....


I don't mind.....

Like Diane, I heard this nutty story on the radio -- NPR's "Marketplace", to be exact. Since that's a business-oriented program, they told it from the point of view of the marketing angle, i.e. is Whole Foods cutting its own throat by being overly p.c.? The conclusion their marketing mavens reached was that Whole Foods couldn't give a **** less about what crustaceans suffer or don't suffer once they're thrown into the pot. But their target customer audience is top-heavy with tree-huggers, PETA types and similar high-end kooks. Whole Foods is doing nothing more than looking for the publicity which will attract more of that stripe of customer. For all we know, they secretly torture their lobsters in the back room before putting them on display for the customers. And who cares?

My hate for Whole Foods Markets is equalled only by my hate for Trader Vic's and, of course, the bottom of the pile -- Starbuck's.

Yikes chai tea, I love you too. Gala too. Just chalk it up to one of my many senior moments. Some of the men here aren't so bad either! The posters I have always enjoyed the most are those that have a firm sense of pragmatism.

People and animals on this planet have been killing and eating each other for millions of years. What is truly ugly is the way agribusiness pens up animals, giving no access to sunshine or fresh air, truly making their lives miserable.

The wait staff at one of our favorite BBQ places wear T-shirts that say: "I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain just to eat vegetable." Yes.

Diane LOVES me!!!!!

She forgot me, too, Chai. But I'm pretty sure she loves me all the same.

Can I name your lobsters before we throw them in the pot, Osso? Somehow, it's just more fun that way.

As long as they get italian names, Eva...

Im glad I dont like lobster.

tastes like rubber butter to me


now them little shrimpy things?

I can eat them until I die....

boil em, broil em, pull em in half.......... i dont care..
just lemme at em.

<sigh> I like whole foods..... I do try to buy the most local options (including beer) and do frequent the local farmers market for the three months we can get fresh produce here. I also go to smaller organic shops as much as possible to help support them. Unfortunately, there aren't any small grocers with organic food around here.

As far as lobsters go - I don't like them, don't eat them, and I don't like the thought of tossing a live lobster into a vat of hot water. Lobster tanks can be done well and badly. Some tanks have crystal clear water and some don't. I dunno if I'd want to eat anything out of the cloudy-greenish lobster tanks.

I know this hardcore vegetarian humorless woman who deplores Whole Foods because they sell meat. That cracks me up. Purists.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Diane, I hadn't realized you'd dyssed me. Nonetheless, it's nice to know.

I like the Whole Foods here existing. Still, I do get the "whole paycheque" thing.

I originally didn't like it's predecessor in LA, Mrs. Gooch's, because I saw it as full of trans fats in the name of health. That was a long time ago though.
I like that there are places I can get some of the foods Ms. Discernment craves. Prefer street markets. Prefer my own yard, but have to still work that out here in hot and freezeville.

Well, you can grow herbs and tomatoes if nothing else!

I love that I can buy anything without checking the label for transfats and other undesirable ingredients.

What would I like? I'd like regular markets to have more interesting, fresher food. Geez, the market nearest me here has no herbs at all except for wilted cilantro (eyes cross...) not even parsley. I suppose I am going to have to have a small talk with management.

eh, you live where you can grow parsel, rosemary, cilantro....... hmmm.... is there still a wild oats in santa fe?

Dunno, I've now spent a grand total of about three hours in Santa Fe, some of them in a car.

Not complaining about here and growing things, k. More that I've got some learning to do re what makes it. I'm thrilled about tomatoes, I missed them so in my northnorth seaport.

Li'l K, if you're sentimental about the well-being of lobsters, please know that the ones being kept in crystal-clear clean water are the ones being sinned against. It is a totally alien and unnatural environment. The tanks that have a lot of muck are the McCoy. Muck is nutrient for the crustaceans and it's what they're comfy with.

This is not to say that the purveyors of lobsters give a rat's patootie about the comfort of their inventory. They're prob'ly just not into cleaning lobster tanks. But as for me, give me a fat, juicy sea scorpion out of a mucky tank, boil him alive, slather him with drawn butter and I'll die happy.

That makes sense, M.A...


On herbs, hey, this is in season and there's nothin' there in my local store, no herb section at all. (Thus my interest in Whole Foods existing). Usually even the lamest place has those prepackaged expensive bits of sage, rosemary, and so on. I'll remedy this personally as I can in and out of doors here, but wtf, the produce manager is a dodo.

I may already be affecting change at what I can only describe as a yuppie purveyor a couple of miles north, where they are already listening to me re kinds of rice, and so on. Big difference, they are already savvy. I'd like having regular stores stock stuff I could cook with.

Which brings up the relation between chains and local purveyors. I wish, or think I wish, that they paid attention to local, as it would be apt to promote some local medium if not small businesses.

Reminds me of Eureka, back in northnorth California. That is the home town of Lazio tuna. Highly regarded in some article in the NYTimes and elsewhere. Not in the local chain stores. Well, finally there were a few cans in Safeway.

Having met littlek a few times, I can say with delight that she is absolutely delightful. I admire her sense of priorities and, especially, her lack of piousness at being a vegetarian. Anyone remember the soup nazi on Seinfeld? Some vegetarians are like that in their avid and blind need to proselytize about the crime of eating meat.

I stopped at the co-op here in ABQ and asked one of the staff how much they knew about the producers of veggies, fruits and meats. He said they were all just fine. I then asked if he knew where they were located, how far they were from other farms that used hormones, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, or how long they had been farming organically and if they had used pesticides, hormones or other nasty stuff. He got sort of huffy and said he was sure their sources were good and that organic growers had to be certified by the government. BLEH!

Quickly checking my impulse to call him a naive little twit, I decided to just use local growers during the summer and wing it the rest of the time. "Organic," "natural," are simply words with several different meanings. Botulism is organic for pity's sake. These words have become big business with a surprisingly accepting public who have enough extra money to pay their price. Inspectors can be bribed. I'll take the small farmer who might use a little insecticide that disintegrates after three weeks. He can't use more because he can't afford it. He uses cow manure from the local dairy farms, not that super expensive stuff from places like Dow Chemical.

Where Dys used to farm has become too expensive for the oldtimers because the "natural organic" farms have moved in. (BTW, one of the reasons I love Dys so much is that, when he was farming, he would grow flowers between rows of crops just because they were beautiful), what's not to love about that?

Despite my angry venting, I am very fond of just about everyone on a2k, and I beg forgiveness from the ones my sieve-like memory forgets.

While I am willing to eat lobster, and have on a number of occasions, I am ever mindful of the fact all meat eating animals inflict hurt on other creatures. It bothers me to eat a cow, but not to the extent it keeps me from enjoying a juicy porterhouse steak. I clean out insects from the pool each morning, mindful that in an hour, I may slap one of the same ones down if aggrivated by it. As Popeye (and God) says, "I yam what I yam." And accept it like that.

Our 17 yo daughter was sent a video by a "friend" last winter showing how animals are killed. She immediately became vegetarian. Has stuck with it for about 8 months now.

For her birthday/ Valentines, Bear took her to a seafood place where she gobbled down pound after pound of crab and shrimp. When asked, she said they aren't animals... And, besides, they are SOOOO GOOOD!

I grew up on a farm. We raised our beef, bacon and chicken salad. Didn't bother me then as much as now. I couldn't put a live lobster in boiling water.