Australian supermarkets just say “NO” to factory farmed pork, in deference to “consumer sentiment”

From Ocean Robbins, on Common Dreams:

“In one of history’s most stunning victories for humane farming, Australia’s largest supermarket chain, Coles, will as of January 1 stop selling company branded pork and eggs from animals kept in factory farms. As an immediate result, 34,000 mother pigs will no longer be kept in stalls for long periods of their lives, and 350,000 hens will be freed from cages.Screen shot from video below

Virtual grocery shopping in South Korea

Thanks to Cryptogon for the heads up:

Fecal matter on 72% of grocery carts, recent study finds — Globe and Mail

Erin Andersson, writing for the Globe and Mail:

“Yuck. After reading this, you may never look at your grocery cart in the same way again.

A University of Arizona researcher took a swab of 85 carts in four different states and ran tests on what he found: 72 per cent of them came back positive for fecal matter. (Half of them were also laced with E. coli.)

The bacteria was discovered mostly on the handles of the carts, suggesting that a lot of people could do a better job washing their hands after they use the toilet while we’re all scrubbing away in disgust.

Shopping where the price is wrong

Supermarket price deception and obfuscation was not even on my radar until I read Shirley-Ann Wood’s special-to-the-Bovine report which appears below. You see, I hardly ever shop at the supermarket anymore. This is not the result of any ideological decision to separate myself from the corporate food industry. 

It just gradually happened that my “dollar votes” have slowly shifted to farmers, farmers markets and health-food stores. But lots of people do shop at supermarkets. And I don’t think it’s a stretch to say they trust those supermarkets to clearly and honestly display product prices and they trust that prices charged at the checkout correctly match those displayed in the store.

How to corner nearly the whole market without appearing to do so -- Loblaws and their many aliases (aka "brands). This image is from smartcanucks.ca; its title is "loblaws-canada.jpg". See what I mean!

 I am not a great writer, nor do I seek to be recognized as a savvy, sarcastic journalist. I am writing simply to express a deep frustration, and truthfully, what is probably more than just a frustration. The topic is a small component of a much larger picture, nonetheless……….