Thursday, February 08, 2007

Whole Foods Changes Rules

So, I like lobsters, and I like the idea of a Whole Foods-like store, even if I would never spend the extra money to buy stuff from there.

However, I'm not sure I understand their reasoning in this decision. I'll wait for you to go read it and check it out.

Ok, so they seem to object to the fact that lobsters are shipped in boxes with other lobsters. Hmm...well, lobsters have hard shells, so they don't get hurt by this. Being pilled up doesn't seem to hurt them much, since it's been done for decades. It's also possible to find them this way in the wild...
The lobsters sold at the Whole Foods Store in Portland, ME, will come from a company based in New Hampshire. After the lobsters are caught in Vinalhaven, they get put in comfortable individual boxes. Well, that's after they get piled up in traps for a couple days in the ocean, waiting for the lobstermen to come pull them out of the water. After they get put in the boxes, I assume they just get shipped out...but do they go to NH before they get shipped to Portland? Cause that just seems like a waste.

The whole process reminds me of the "Last cigarette and meal before an execution." Why bother? I mean, the lobsters don't really care enough to talk to us about it, do they? And if it's been good enough for so long, why bother to worry about it now?

I like that Whole Foods is a company with Morals, I just don't understand them in this particular case. Especially since there are plenty of lobstermen in Portland who could work for them and put lobsters in individual boxes without shipping them around the North East. Then, the company might actually be able to sell a few of their lobsters in Portland, and they could support the local workers. (I've been reading too much Marx lately.)

So, does anyone understand this better than I? Cause I'd appreciate some 'splaining.

4 comments:

  1. ummmm Lobsters can't talk to people but I don't disagree with you. They are yummy and I don't care how I get them as long as I can boil them and eat them.

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  2. I was kind of pointing out that their feelings don't really matter because they don't have enough intelligence to communicate. And they're lobsters. Kind of a lot like big bugs.
    Or, if you want to take a Darwinian approach, they can't talk to us because they haven't had a need to communicate anything very important enough to develop a way to talk.

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  3. Ok so I think they are taking the whole cruelty to animal thing a little too far. Personally I think the electric shock is as cruel as boiling water. What is this world coming to? Everything has to be PC

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  4. That pretty much sums it up, Emma. I'm just confused that people will actually pay for this...I mean, the lobster tastes worse, the longer it's dead before you cook it...

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