Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How we're scammed into eating phony food

nypost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 475 posts

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#251

Post by ptaipale »

CalRobert wrote: post #249
sampo wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anything, GMO products should be be much safer than non-GMO, because they have gone through a much stricter approval process.

Surely the thousands of years of human civilizations consuming non-GMO products should count as a fairly strict approval process?

A vast majority of what you eat has been developed, not thousands of years ago, but some years or decades ago, using processes such as induced mutagenesis and selection. The variance in genome produced by GMO technology is very small compared to the changes in developed plants, which is not researched at all prior to feeding to humans.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#252

Post by facepalm »

polskibus wrote: post #38

That's why EU people are protesting against TTIP. We're worried that the lower standards that are common in USA, will prevail, and any resistance will be trampled in private arbitrage courts.

EU has many of the same problems that are mentioned in the article, though. Here in Germany efforts to enforce proper food labeling so far have failed. The olive oil scam is a thing here, too (so I have heard). Sea food - it comes from the same places as the sea food in the US.

I suspect the differences are minor, and some things people fear are maybe even not so bad. Here they fear "chlorine chicken" from the US, but who knows, maybe it actually is better to soak chickens in chlorine before selling them. Maybe you should be afraid of chlorine free chicken in the US if TTIP goes through...

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#253

Post by rahimnathwani »

CalRobert wrote: post #140
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a huge worry for me. The quality of food in the US is atrocious. When I was there, almost nothing tasted as it should, everything tasted bland and mildly sweet. The only way I found to get decent meat was to buy ultra-posh organic stuff at ridiculous prices, and then it would be no more than on par with the cheapest meat I could buy in Spain. Even chocolate is affected! TTIP is one of the worst things th…

For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)

I'm ethnically Indian, and grew up in London. So I'm used to having good Indian food both at home and in restaurants.

I recently visited Dublin for the first time, and picked an Indian restaurant based on Yelp ratings/reviews. I've never eaten worse Indian food than I did that day.

I don't believe that the restaurant operators are unable to make OK food. They were Indian themselves. Perhaps they had to change their flavours to adapt to local palates, and their ingredients due to economic pressure?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#254

Post by rahimnathwani »

coldtea wrote: post #192
CalRobert wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)

> However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. Well, apart from whisky, nobody ever considered Ireland a place for good food. For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine.

What foods have you tried in the UK, that turned out to be bad? Perhaps I can recommend different restaurants for you to try.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#255

Post by ddebernardy »

Shivetya wrote: post #201
ddebernardy wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EU laws aren't being enforced. All the fake olive oil is coming out of Italy. Not seeing how the two sentences follow. Why should the EU be enforcing its laws on food packaged there, if the latter is destined for shipment to the US where pretty much anything goes?

well for one thing wouldn't the EU want to be known as providing good food? The EU should simply not allow the products that are not true to be sourced from a EU country. Your values aren't worth squat if they aren't applied to all you do. This just means that if you are willing to sell shit labeled as flowers to a foreign nation it will happen at home too

Fair enough, but then again, you were complaining specifically about _Italian_ olive oil rather than EU values as a whole. Keep in mind that Italy has large regions that were traditionally run by the Mafia and the Camorra:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Mafia

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camorra

Also, keep in mind that - in contrast with the US and as already raised elsewhere - the EU tends to crack down on would-be fraudsters and prosecute when they find issues. Also, it's not unheard of for businesses to tip health inspectors to check out their competitors at the slightest hint of fraud. It might merely be an impression, but the same in the US seems to require alerting consumers and sometimes alarming them before the FDA bothers to wake up (as put on film in e.g. A Civil Action or Erin Brockovich).

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#256

Post by kalleboo »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #82
gambiting wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see it as stupid at all! To me, Greek Yoghurt has to come from greece, that's what I expect as a customer. Any non-Greek Greek yoghurt is simply labeled as "Greek-style Yoghurt" and that's easy enough, when I go to the shop I know exactly what I'm getting.

> To me, Greek Yoghurt has to come from greece, that's what I expect as a customer. Why do you expect that? It can't be based on the name, since virtually all foods with an origin name were not actually made there. I'm pretty sure you don't expect Cheddar cheese to have come from Cheddar? Would you accept ordinary yoghurt that was imported from Greece being sold as "Greek Yoghurt"? If I imported Camembert cheese from…

And if I buy "Napa Valley wine", it can come from Chile, right?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#257

Post by cromulent »

ricksplat wrote: post #158
mac01021 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what if someone outside France is able to produce equivalent cheese using the same formula? Why do you care where it's from?

If you take for instance "Champagne" - you might have an equivalent product but it's not "Champagne" unless it comes from the Champagne region of France. Yet alternative sparkling whites such as "Prosecco" (Italy), "Cava" (Spain) and "Cristal" (US) seem to do quite well. If you have a good enough product, you shouldn't have any need to claim equivalence with another regional variety.

True. I think that Cristal is champagne though, at least the one I know of. Is there a local Cristal in the US?

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#258

Post by sitkack »

zzen wrote: post #63
foota wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but that doesn't make sense to me, why would the quality of food there decrease?

Because currently the USDA and FDA equivalents in EU actually work, and the laws that require food inspections are stricter. The worry is that TTIP market access policies will force uniform, lowest-common-denominator rules, eliminating european food QA policies.

Those that want TTIP, want lowest common denominator, to force the EU into lower standards and force what would be democratic decisions into crappy backroom arbitrage. The capitalists have a world wide conspiracy to kill democracy.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#259

Post by Noseshine »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #170
realusername wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's exactly like democracy, no one wants democracy when it goes against what they personally want.

That's a bit of a lazy analogy. Loads of people want democracy, even when it doesn't achieve their goals.

After watching the Brexit aftermath I think it's safe to say there also are loads of people who don't. The Brexiters are all just stupid and misinformed (focus on all, and no look at ones own chosen group for comparison), "mob rule", whataboutism (the Brexiters too would have continued to argue had they lost), etc.

Re: How we're scammed into eating phony food

#260

Post by chimprich »

coldtea wrote: post #192
CalRobert wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, I live Ireland and moved here after 30 years in the US. I agree that the TTIP is a terrible idea (and feels a bit like imperialism chasing after me as I exit). Food on the continent is a sheer delight for the senses. However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. (To be fair, we _do_ have some pretty great cheese)

> However, if you visit this fine emerald isle, you will find the US has no monopoly on bland, mildly sweet food. Well, apart from whisky, nobody ever considered Ireland a place for good food. For UK of course it's even worse, they're actively known for the bad taste and cuisine.

You're quite out of date. The food in the UK has changed beyond recognition in the last 10-15 years. It's still possible (but increasingly rare) to find bad food but in any decent-sized city there are many great places to eat. London in particular has some of the best food in the world.
Post reply on HN