Plastics Crisis – Healthy Food in Unhealthy Packaging
/Plastic dominates packing in the grocery stores – even in the produce section.
In the store where I shop, more than half the produce items are in plastic – either clamshell (more rigid plastic) or flexible bags. Neither type of plastic is recycled effectively. It’s impossible to buy leafy greens or grapes or carrots or mushrooms, or celery or blueberries…the list goes on and on…in the store where I usually shop without the plastic! Usually there are potatoes, squash, broccoli, cabbage, kale, bell peppers, cucumbers, apples, pears, lemons, and oranges from bins where I can use my own bags or keep them unbagged…but none of them are the organic versions. I am beginning to wonder whether organic is worth it with all the plastic around those foods (and maybe used during production to control weeds). Right now, I am skewing toward the food with the least packaging (or no packaging). If I do buy something in plastic packaging, I take it out of that packaging as soon as I get it home!
I’ve started buying eggs in a pulp paper carton (even though they are more expensive) rather than the Styrofoam cartons; not sure why the producers are using Styrofoam since it isn’t a healthy material and does not protect the eggs from breakage very well either.
The picture below is from Life Magazine from November 10, 1947. The groceries in the picture fed a family of 4 (parents and 4-year-old twins) plus their cat. There might not be any plastic in the picture! The meat and bread appear to the wrapped in paper. The eggs are in boxes and there are canned goods. There isn’t much produce (celery, lettuce, radishes, onions, potatoes); the potatoes and onions are in paper bags and the rest is unwrapped.
I’m not advocating reverting to the 1940s – but we should revie the history of food packaging now that we are understanding the downsides of its single-use design that results in environmental contamination. No one wants to be full of plastic and the associated health challenges.
