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Masterfoods: Not evil, merely stupid
Hmm, good news for a change, Masterfoods no longer evil:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mooism first posted on the 8th (note, that was 6 days before the BBC caught up), but things got lost in the shuffle. They were using the excuse that "only strict vegetarians" would be affected, and in a way, they'd be right. When I eat out, I don't tend to worry whether the cheese is made using rennet, I'm not that strict. But if a company does something blitheringly stupid, and says that it shouldn't bother me at all?
Worse, for them, it would've meant that many of my non-vegetarian friends and family would have stopped buying their products; why buy Masterfoods when Cadbury do something just as good? Stupid stupid company decision. Still, while I'll try to stick to Green and Blacks when I can afford it, and Cadbury when I can't, I can still buy Masterfoods now, they're idiots, but they're not
evil like Nestlé. Ah, informed consumers making choices within an active market, and forcing companies to change. You can see why so many capitalists are anti-market at heart, right?
The only problem of course is that some of the statistics used to claim how many vegetarians there are in the country are likely very very wrong. Why? Because even smart people are stupid:
Oh, it's National Vegetarian Week as of tomorrow, so expect dodgy media coverage, false assumptions and some of my more idiotic ethical eaters to be a bit too assertive in various places, sorry about that.
Mars said it became "very clear, very quickly" that it had made a mistake.Merely very very stupid. Was going to post about the sheer idiocy when
mooism first posted on the 8th (note, that was 6 days before the BBC caught up), but things got lost in the shuffle. They were using the excuse that "only strict vegetarians" would be affected, and in a way, they'd be right. When I eat out, I don't tend to worry whether the cheese is made using rennet, I'm not that strict. But if a company does something blitheringly stupid, and says that it shouldn't bother me at all?Worse, for them, it would've meant that many of my non-vegetarian friends and family would have stopped buying their products; why buy Masterfoods when Cadbury do something just as good? Stupid stupid company decision. Still, while I'll try to stick to Green and Blacks when I can afford it, and Cadbury when I can't, I can still buy Masterfoods now, they're idiots, but they're not
evil like Nestlé. Ah, informed consumers making choices within an active market, and forcing companies to change. You can see why so many capitalists are anti-market at heart, right?
The only problem of course is that some of the statistics used to claim how many vegetarians there are in the country are likely very very wrong. Why? Because even smart people are stupid:
Twenty years after the IQ tests were carried out in 1970, 366 of the participants said they were vegetarian - although more than 100 reported eating either fish or chicken.Guys? Vegetarians don't eat fish, let alone chicken. So as virtually every survey of the nature relies on self reporting, and approx 1/3rd of self-described vegetarians are pescetarians at best, the market impact might be smaller than it should be. People assuming I can eat fish despite being vegetarian is probably one of my biggest pet-hates, and it isn't helped by the ignorance of some who self-describe wrongly. It's a bit like self-described Christians who don't go to church; they may quack like a duck, but they sure as hell don't walk like a duck.
Oh, it's National Vegetarian Week as of tomorrow, so expect dodgy media coverage, false assumptions and some of my more idiotic ethical eaters to be a bit too assertive in various places, sorry about that.
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Pro or anti about Vegetarianism doesn't matter. this is all about consumer power and market forces. People trying to promote or slight vegetarianism based on this outcome will just end up looking stupid...
PS You do know G&B is owned by Cadbury's, right? Not that that's a bad thing, 'M just saying.
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But yeah; much more about market forces being used for good than anything else, it always surprises me when people on the left whinge about markets and the right say they're in favour of them, it really ought to be the other way around.
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And the only chocolate in the range that is actually fair trade is the Maya Gold one. How ethical the others are is not entirely clear.
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They're working on making more organice chocolate fair trade, but the fair trade marque itself isn't needed to make it ethical stuff, in fact, some firms, such as Whittards, use a different scheme which they argue is better than Fair Trade.
But yeah, he's president of the soil association, therefore I mark him as loon anyway. He's just a loon on my side of the big picture stuff, and is entitled to think the poo lady is valid, just as we're entitled to side with Dr Ben and laugh at both of them.
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Of course he's entitled to think that the poo lady is valid. However everyone who actually knows about science is obligated to point out that they're a pair of loons.
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Last meat for a week. Well, unless you count... ;)
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Plus, £13? That's crazy good. Marie not working or something?
*ducks, hides, runs a bit more*
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Why for a week, are you just joining in for the hell of it or something?
Yes, LOL. And I want to see if I can do it.
It's not that I don't like veggie food, and I don't eat meat when you're here because it's easier to cook us both the same... but I like meat too. I am, at least, a moderately ETHICAL meat eater - the only meat dish I will eat at work is the sausages because they are local/organic/fluffy sausages.
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I think the ethics of it are important, my main objection to meat production is factory farming; I've got a huge amount of time for traditional and organic farmers who look after their animals properly.
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I'll happily eat pig's trotters and other stuff which people think are gross, as long as they are from well looked-after animals...
But yes, am going to try veggieness for a week. I mean, I did it for seven years once; it can't be that hard...
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The whole "I'm a vegitarian but I eat fish sometimes" makes me twitch. I correct people who assume that about me, but when someone tells me that I reply, "Oh, so you're not a vegitarian then."
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But yeah, I do that at times, I had to stop myself at work because it tended to offend the hosts a bit when I told them off, but I don't work there any more. The Vegsoc link to the fish campaign is in my regular use bookmarks, so useful to just be able to tell people to go read.
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It turns out that the easiest way to keep kosher is to be a vegetarian. Fish with fins and scales are considered neither meat nor dairy, which is why I eat it.
Did you know that the Book of Mormon says that Mormons should not eat meat or, if they do, to limit it as much as possible? Most Mormons don't follow that one, but it's in there. Muslims have dietary restrictions, too, of course. Interesting that most religions with dietary restrictions could meet their requirements most easily by becoming vegetarians.
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I don't know much about the religious strictures of many faiths; background, history and core belief, yes, I'm normally fairly strong, but what the faith requires I'm vague about; doesn't affect me, so it matters not.
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"It's a bit like self-described Christians who don't go to church; they may quack like a duck, but they sure as hell don't walk like a duck."
It wouldn't surprise me if ducks are officially fish according to the catholic church (I think beavers are or at least were?), since they're aquatic.
Is this people simply stupidly confusing "animal" with "mammal"; 'I'm a vegetarian, I don't eat animals, but I eat chicken because that's not an animal, it's a bird'?
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You could actually be right, people can sometimes be that stupid.
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Even just 5 years ago, they'd have got away with it, or it would have lasted months. Now it's announced and done with within two weeks.
Markets rule. Well, as long as you subvert them to your cause and keep the information flowing.
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Veeeeeery good indeed. One of the best in London. Listed in the Top Ten of Vegetarian Eateries in Britain.
Of course the fact I worked there for a year and the headchef is a good friend has nothing to do with my promoting them 0:-)
www.222veggievegan.com
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*reads menu*
There are... options. I'm not used to options. Normally I find one thing on the menu and stick to that. That's very very cool.