BOYCOTT LOBLAWS: agree?
In response to the disgusting comment by Galen Weston (“Farmers’ markets are great, one day they’re going to kill some people though.” reported by Daily Brew), Loblaws kills far more people than any farmers market - including the farms and produce associated with them - annually than any farmers market ever has or ever will.
Having worked at one of their enormous distribution center, I know for a fact that at least one employee during my eight month tenure there had lost their lives while on the job. It was in Alberta, in a DC very much like the one I worked at. I recall it being a younger person being hit by a truck. Also during my tenure a the DC, a fellow employee on a different shift was brutally injured. It involved an accident of two driven machines and a disfigured ankle. I won’t even mention the countless instances I had myself witnessed ‘near misses’ of narrowly-avoided horrendous accidents.
This is directly from the DC model that Loblaws has, which is a unnecessary step for most farmers markets. This doesn’t even take into account food quality issues, that most farmers markets are made up of stalls where the farmers themselves sell their produce. They grew the produce themselves, their face is being associated with it and know the customer is likely aware of it. The farmer is proud of their food, and they are eating it themselves so chances of it being contaminated are slim. They can also answer any question you may have about what they sell, and are usually more than happy to talk to customers. A chain like Loblaws sells food from every corner of the world, most of it (including the meats and produce) are genetic freakshows, rife with poisons, ripen on trucks over a transport trip lasting thousands of miles, and so on.
Most of what is sold at Loblaws isn’t even produced in Canada at all. During employee training they joke about how their Joe Casual brand is outselling WalMart in some markets, “selling the same stuff made in the same sweatshops” was a direct quote from one of the managers. When one buys at farmers’ markets, you are paying the farmer directly. You are helping the local economy leaps and bounds more than if you spent money at a chain like Loblaws, who imports most of their goods and spends their money in countries like the US, China and the Philippines.
Mega conglomerates like Loblaws, especially in food distribution, is harmful. No longer are we knowledgeable about simple things, like what crops are available at which part of the year in your own area, because we can go to a grocery store and have instant access to whatever produce we wish. We lose touch the community and touch of what really goes on where you live because the feeling and aesthetics of one’s “grocery experience” are dictated by capitalist corporate rule. Someone like Galen Weston, who has never had a real job, makes me honestly sick that people like him are in the position they are and continue to tighten their stranglehold on this country.
