[Newsbot]

Title: Buttergate: Why are Canadians complaining about hard butter'
Category: Misc CDN
Posted By: DrCaleb
Date: 2021-02-24 07:31:59
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

If the Dairy industry wants to maintian the image it has fostered over the last decades, it needs to stop using such an environmentally damaging product to artifically give it's product volume,

[DrCaleb]

This also blends in to my pet peeve that we can't have anything nice.

If you've ever tried the butter from Brittany, France, you would understand how inferior a product we have here. Same with almost everything that is sold in grocery stores. We can do better, just very few try.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

This also blends in to my pet peeve that we can't have anything nice.

If you've ever tried the butter from Brittany, France, you would understand how inferior a product we have here. Same with almost everything that is sold in grocery stores. We can do better, just very few try.

That, and the fact that our choices here are severely limited. One of the first few times I crossed the border into the USA for some shopping, I popped into a Wegman's, and I believe I went into a Top's as well.

The amount of choice (not to mention WAY better prices) that they enjoy down there compared to what we get. I routinely saw products on shelves that were discontinued up here many years ago. It blows my mind to know how much of a choice we're missing out of in Canada because not many seem to give a shit at all.

I don't mind going to European-focused shops every so often, but you pay a lot more to get the extra choices (which still isn't much) that you may want.

We can do a hell of a lot better here, and we should.

-J.

[DrCaleb]

CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:

I don't mind going to European-focused shops every so often, but you pay a lot more to get the extra choices (which still isn't much) that you may want.

-J.

You don't have to go to specialty shops, just go to a farmers market. Go in May and get the new crop of carrots, and see if they stack up against everything but what you grow yourself.

I do go to one shop that carried Butter from P.E.I., and it smells like fresh cut lawn. We can do these things, just people don't know they are worth paying for because Farmers can't afford to roll the dice on whether their products will be bought.

[raydan]

I'd rather have quality than choice.

As for American food being cheaper, one of the reasons is than 40% of American farmers' revenue comes from subsidies.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

You don't have to go to specialty shops, just go to a farmers market.

My last experience with the local farmer's market wasn't a good one, mainly due to ridiculous prices. It's hard to shop local when the farmers are trying to rip people off. There's high prices, and then there is highway robbery.

And, I'm poor. NoFrills is my jam.

-J.

[DrCaleb]

raydan raydan:

I'd rather have quality than choice.

^^^

CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

You don't have to go to specialty shops, just go to a farmers market.

My last experience with the local farmer's market wasn't a good one, mainly due to ridiculous prices. It's hard to shop local when the farmers are trying to rip people off. There's high prices, and then there is highway robbery.

And, I'm poor. NoFrills is my jam.

-J.

If you want quality, it costs money. That's why Bentleys don't sell for under $20k.

Like Ray says, the reason food costs are so low is partially due to subsidies. I submit that using poorer countries like Chile to grow our food also reduces costs. And the transportation doesn't help. Tomatoes that taste like cardboard, string beans that are limp - because they have to be picked early and shipped so far.

I prefer Farmers markets, even though I know some of them cheat and sell imported food in the winter, because I know when things are fresh and local they will be in the market. I also know they quality will be there in the taste.

I don't eat meat often, but I prefer the Hutterite chicken because I know is is treated well. But $35-$40 a chicken isn't for the average family. I know the produce there isn't heavily coated in chemicals. I know the farmers pay attention to taste, not just price.

[bootlegga]

CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:

That, and the fact that our choices here are severely limited. One of the first few times I crossed the border into the USA for some shopping, I popped into a Wegman's, and I believe I went into a Top's as well.

The amount of choice (not to mention WAY better prices) that they enjoy down there compared to what we get. I routinely saw products on shelves that were discontinued up here many years ago. It blows my mind to know how much of a choice we're missing out of in Canada because not many seem to give a shit at all.

I don't mind going to European-focused shops every so often, but you pay a lot more to get the extra choices (which still isn't much) that you may want.

We can do a hell of a lot better here, and we should.

-J.

The prices are generally lower because of lower standards/weaker regulations and tons of subsidies. If you want non-growth hormone milk in the US, you'll pay roughly the same price as milk here in Canada. You cannot pay me enough to buy US dairy products full of growth hormones and anti-biotics.

But I certainly agree with you on variety - we typically go down every other year and the variety is mind-boggling. Pick any aisle in an American grocery store and you'll find dozens more flavours and brands of products than you will in Canada.

Part of that is due to a larger market, which makes some flavours viable there and not here, while another part is that some companies simply won't go through the hassle of exporting their product to Canada and having to deal with import duties, regulations, packaging rules (Bilingual, metric, etc.).

[CDN_PATRIOT]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I submit that using poorer countries like Chile to grow our food also reduces costs. And the transportation doesn't help. Tomatoes that taste like cardboard, string beans that are limp - because they have to be picked early and shipped so far.

I won't buy Mexican tomatoes or produce, because you are right about the cardboard taste. I do however, really like apples from Chile, as well as some fruits from other South American countries. Canadian/American produce is still tops, however.

-J.

[fifeboy]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I don't eat meat often, but I prefer the Hutterite chicken because I know is is treated well. But $35-$40 a chicken isn't for the average family. I know the produce there isn't heavily coated in chemicals. I know the farmers pay attention to taste, not just price.

I know what you’re saying. Hutterite chickens are a bit cheaper than that here, but my wife and I have found they go further than a supermarket bird. One meal of thighs, breasts filleted and sliced for sandwiches, another meal from legs and other parts and then chicken soup from bones. When it tastes like it should, one tends to use ALL of it.

[fifeboy]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

I prefer Farmers markets, even though I know some of them cheat and sell imported food in the winter, because I know when things are fresh and local they will be in the market. I also know they quality will be there in the taste.

.

Saskatoon HAD a great farmers market in a centralized location where I could bike to easily, but City Council sent them out to a car oriented location that requires a really long bike trip or some death defying crazy bike stuff. We now go to several smaller pop
Up markets around the city, but they operate only spring to fall.

[Strutz]

DrCaleb DrCaleb:

CDN_PATRIOT CDN_PATRIOT:

I don't mind going to European-focused shops every so often, but you pay a lot more to get the extra choices (which still isn't much) that you may want.

-J.

You don't have to go to specialty shops, just go to a farmers market. Go in May and get the new crop of carrots, and see if they stack up against everything but what you grow yourself.

I do go to one shop that carried Butter from P.E.I., and it smells like fresh cut lawn. We can do these things, just people don't know they are worth paying for because Farmers can't afford to roll the dice on whether their products will be bought.

My cousin and her husband operate an organic farm on Vancouver Island and sell some of their products at local farmers markets.

It's good to support local anything as often as one is able to.

[CDN_PATRIOT]

Strutz Strutz:

It's good to support local anything as often as one is able to.

This is true, but is sometimes easier said than done. Personally, I have shifted my focus in the past year to shop either local or Canadian companies. I stopped going to Walmart over a year ago (glad I did, given the circumstances of the pandemic) and have switched to a Canadian discount chain (Giant Tiger).

Local/Canadian are important, but I still have to be careful where I go because I am on a budget and can't afford to pay much extra on a lot of things. It's tough when you want to help out more locally but are unable to.

-J.

[DrCaleb]

fifeboy fifeboy:

I know what you’re saying. Hutterite chickens are a bit cheaper than that here, but my wife and I have found they go further than a supermarket bird. One meal of thighs, breasts filleted and sliced for sandwiches, another meal from legs and other parts and then chicken soup from bones. When it tastes like it should, one tends to use ALL of it.

Grocery stores don't seem to carry the different type of chicken any more. Roasters, Fryers, Broilers, etc. I have to go to the farmers market or butchers to get one. And they are very seasonal! You can't get a good fresh roasting chicken, with the hard breast bone, in the winter. Only frozen ones.

And the local butcher only carries local chicken, usually Hutterite. They also let you preorder Turkeys in September, and will smoke them on site for you.

I take the bones and freeze them, and use them for stock when I have 3 or 4. Nothing like a real chicken soup made basically of nothing but chicken.