Are You a Food Snob?

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(Food tastes are not strictly a matter of economic status, however. When an upscale Minneapolis-based grocery chain noted for its gourmet appeal opened a state-of-the-art store in an upscale community on the edge of the Twin Cities, it bombed. The explanation: Well-to-do suburbanites, unlike their more urban counterparts, sink disposable income into new golf clubs or fancy lawn mowers, not truffles and free-range chicken.)

Muller explains that his own path to alleged food snobbery began with microbrew beers, which taste so much better than big corporate brands they're worth the extra cost. “I later made the jump into high-quality food,” he says. “I find the increased cost small compared to the health benefits, the better taste, and the pleasure of shopping in small co-ops rather than crowded grocery stores.”

Still, he adds, family back in Iowa “worry that we are wasting our money…. There are also larger, unspoken concerns-that eating these expensive organic foods is wasteful and counters our moral obligation to ‘feed the world.’”

Muller, a trained environmental engineer who works at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (a research and advocacy organization whose work contributed to our cover story; www.iatp.org), decided to investigate whether his taste for natural foods in any way worsens hunger in developing nations or harms poor families and hard-hit farmers here at home.

He notes that in North America food has been transformed into a commodity, just like standard half-inch nails or AAA batteries. A pound of lean hamburger in one place is supposed to be like a pound of lean hamburger in another, the only difference being perhaps price. But this fails to take into account a whole host of environmental, health, and taste factors. “Aficionados of cars, stereos, and televisions would not stand for someone claiming that they are all the same,” Muller notes. So why would we expect that to be the case with hamburger or eggs or tomatoes?

“Yes, we are blessed with some of the least expensive food in the world, but that comes with a cost,” he adds. The cost includes pesticide poisoning, destruction of topsoil, desecration of the countryside, and greenhouse gas emissions from long-distance transportation.

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