It's time to add a new word to your lexicon: eco-douchebag. Guilty Planet has offered the phrase and asked for comments regarding a sign on a bread slicer at a Whole Foods in Vancouver warning customers that the bread slicer is used on both organic and non-organic items.
It seems unlikely that bread would be affected by an all-use slicer. You could sway me that the coffee grinder in the next aisle matters. (Never use a store's coffee grinder. You're always getting the end of someone else's grind and leaving your own for the next person. And invariably the person before you has selected flavored coffee.)
The bread slicer is indicative of a bigger societal issue -- it raises the question of whether we've gone too far or we've been on the wrong side of reasonable for a long time.
For some people, demonstrating their food knowledge seems to be as important
as having it. It's not enough that you know what it takes to make a
pana cotta -- everyone else also needs to know that you know. And here, men and
women can be equally insufferable. In a world of conspicous consumption, these people make it a point to judge your consumption while
pointing out the benefits of their own.
Has food always been about demonstrating superior knowledge? Did the
first caveman grunt knowingly when he went to another cave and
discovered that the cook wasn't using a flat rock?
Regardless, it seems like it's time for eco-douchebags to take their
rightful place among the other buzzkills of the food and beverage
universe. Feel free to dismiss them with the same ease as the wine
snob, the elitist barrista and
the guy who explains the origin of what you're eating -- while you wait politely as it gets cold.
[Image via Guilty Planet]
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Re: the coffee grinders, I always put a small handful of decent beans through before I start grinding my own. Theft? Maybe. But I believe greater crime would be drinking 'Irish Macadamia Mint' coffee.
Is there any sort of fringe-religious significance? I know there are surface contact issues with kosher/non-kosher food, and Denny's was sued years ago after a Muslim diner requested that his food be prepared in a separate skillet so it didn't come in contact with pork. (The suit came about because the asshole cook decided to put little bits of ham in the dish anyway; when it was sent back he tried to hide bacon in it.)
Yes, I think it's ridiculous either way, but I certainly wonder how it came about.
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