Well, this is good news for the Republicans, the more money the Democrats waste on carbon offsets and organic food, the less they’ll have in November.
Fried foods are forbidden at the committee’s 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both.
And caterers must provide foods in “at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white,” garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week.
The shrimp-and-mango ensemble? All it’s got is white, brown and orange, so it may not have the nutritional balance that generally comes from a multihued menu.
“Blue could be a challenge,” joked Ed Janos, owner of Cook’s Fresh Market in Denver. “All I can think of are blueberries.”
[...]
“I think it’s a great idea for our community and our environment. The question is, how practical is it?” asks Nick Agro, the owner of Whirled Peas Catering in Commerce City. “We all want to source locally, but we’re in Colorado. The growing season is short. It’s dry here. And I question the feasibility of that.”
Agro’s biggest worry is price. Using organic and local products hikes the costs.
“There is going to be sticker shock when those bids start coming in,” he says. “I’ll cook anything, but I’ve had clients who have approached me about all-organic menus, and then they see the organic stuff pretty much doubles your price.”
[...]
“We are hoping that everything we are doing for greening (the convention) has some legacy value,” she says.
[...]
“It takes some creativity because some of these things are more expensive,” she says. “But we’re at the front end of a market shift.”
[...]
The committee is working with other groups to develop a carbon-footprint “calculator” that will measure the environmental impact of each event and suggest an “offset” — a fee — that will go toward a fund helping to match carbon losses with carbon gains.
I’m not sure how much legacy value this will have since not everyone has unlimited money to throw around like the Democrats do. I wouldn’t worry about the caterers making a profit, they will. They’ll just pass the expense on to the Democrats.
I guess those who contributed to the DNC should be happy that they enabled the elite to eat organic.
posted May 20, 2008 at 8:12 am
Well, maybe after it is all done they can have a first hand experience of what money is needed to live such a lifestyle, and it will either lead to one of three things, I can imagine:
1.) They will accept the fact of higher costs, and give a speech or whatnot about how good it feels to eat ethically, regardless of the price.
2.) They will give a speech about subsidies or something like that in order to make organic on a large scale practical.
3.) They will look at the bill and say to themselves, “Maybe we can find other ways of being green.”
posted May 20, 2008 at 11:09 am
I guess you think it beyond the realm of possibility that the would look at the bill and say, “It’s really expense to go green, let’s not impose this on the rest of the nation?”
posted May 20, 2008 at 11:44 am
Why are conventional foods brown while organic is green?
This strikes me as a quasi religious food taboo and sets my BS detector off. If you mitigate the negative effects of using chemical fertilizers and insecticides. What is wrong with their use?
posted May 20, 2008 at 1:55 pm
“Why are conventional foods brown while organic is green?”
Hmmm…how about the distribution of chemicals into the atmosphere. This is a better question for Rod Dreher than me since I’m not a crunchy con.
posted May 20, 2008 at 2:17 pm
An associate of mine is thinking of putting out a line of products with the logo “Green Sucks!” I think there may a new market for it.
posted May 20, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Anyone else think they’ve kind of forced themselves into this? If it produced a huge carbon offset they’d just have to listen to the large chorus of people calling them hypocrites.
posted May 20, 2008 at 6:58 pm
it’s simple economics people. the reason that organic food is expensive is because very few farmers grow it that way. i grow my own organic garden on the cheap. complain all you want, while i enjoy my very fresh, unpolluted veggies and fruits.
posted May 20, 2008 at 10:44 pm
We are taking steps to fight the production of meth on our own soil through limiting access to precursor ingredients, supporting educational efforts and providing necessary resources to law enforcement.
posted May 21, 2008 at 7:01 am
“it’s simple economics people. the reason that organic food is expensive is because very few farmers grow it that way. i grow my own organic garden on the cheap. complain all you want, while i enjoy my very fresh, unpolluted veggies and fruits.”
Isn’t the reason that it’s not effective since it would be susceptible to damage from insects. It’s easy to farm a tiny garden but some of these farm are pretty big it would be hard to maintain pest control without help.
posted May 22, 2008 at 1:37 am
we were talking about expense, not effectiveness.
actually, it’s not “the reason”, but you’ve made a fairly reasoned, factual statement. sure, insects can be a problem. however, large-scale farms aren’t environmentally good anyway, because they grow huge amounts of vegetables to be transported all around the country. this requires extra packaging, gas for transportation, and large scale machinery to plant, maintain, and harvest. sometimes this is unavoidable when certain fruits and vegetables only grow in particular climates. still, growing up on a small farm, my family effectively utilized natural pest controllers.
yeah, it is easy to farm a tiny garden, and city dwellers can do a lot to cut their food costs and eat healthier (instead of whine about the cost of organics). i also suggest buying from local farmers, as it cuts down on gas burned for transporting the produce and the costs associated with it.