Less for More

Last year I did a piece on shrinking foods in the marketplace, called "Alice in Groceryland." In it, I looked at reports few and far between in the media, which documented the corporate trend of hidden raises in prices--cutting 2 or 3 ounces out of a box of cereal, while charging the price equal to the box before the ounce-cut. The whole supermarket bulges with these magic tricks--how we've come to accept this is the real question.

Hidden price hikes have become so commonplace that now we see the occasional reference to it on a label--mayonnaise which touts "the full 12 ounces," and the like. I don't think most people are paying attention to these product cuts, but once one awakens to the practice, it seems to be everywhere.

Sugar-free products often cost more than the ones with sugar. Does it cost more to produce them? Usually not. We're suckers for anything novel. We pay more for a pump gizmo which pre-foams our hand soap--in order to foam, the soap must be, literally, watered down. We're paying extra for water and air, which cost the company zip. Most of us really mind this--we don't want to pay for something while receiving nothing, but we don't manufacture our own Wheaties or Dial hand soap, so we wonder what to do.

Today I read a report on one method the major food companies use to stretch their products, while we pay the same dollars. We're actually eating wood in our Taco Bell tacos and KFC biscuits, and in hundreds of products lining the grocery store shelves. This tasty additive can be touted as "fiber," as it actually derives from wood pulp--cellulose. It cannot be digested in human stomachs, but we're not apprised of this fact on the package.

"Let them eat wood" would never fly, even in Revolutionary France.

We're eating foods we would not send to Third-World countries to feed starving children, and in most cases, we're unaware of it--if it tastes ok, eat it. Shrinking foods, increasing costs, deteriorting health, rising health care costs--I think it's beyond clear

We talk of the shrinking middle class. Clinton was elected twice on the fact that the middle class was "working harder for less pay." It was true, and at the end of his term, people did feel more secure in their middle-class positions.

Ten years later, we're worse off, we're losing our houses, and those who need additional nutrients especially, are getting fewer. As a society, we're wasting away due to corporate greed. All we really need to do is to stop buying these products--get to know what's in our food--savvy up. Move our funds from the huge corps and redeposit them into local institutions. Buy local foods and support small businesses. Does not seem all that complicated, does it?

Or we can go on eating wood and paying for air and water in place of wheat and oil and soap. We can go on wishing things were the way they used to be. Do we really even remember when that was?