The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #43684   Message #641793
Posted By: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
04-Feb-02 - 02:05 AM
Thread Name: Starbucks under terror threat
Subject: RE: STARBUCKS UNDER TERROR THREAT
No freetrade coffee here. Safeway has a couple of so-called organic coffees, about $12US a pound, blends unknown. Upscale stores such as The Cooking School specialty outlet have more, but expensive.
We have no standards for "organic" produce; you must put your trust in the label or the vendor and neither may be reliable.
The federal government is studying ways of cracking down on herbal remedies and possibly putting some of the more dangerous ones, such as Ephedra, under prescription only rules.
We don't have fresh or Canadian graded frozen meat in our stores from Latin America. Only "corned beef" or other processed meat tins. I can't speak for the hamburger at McDonalds, etc. We get some frozen lamb from New Zealand, but not the quality of local lamb. Our graded fresh and frozen beef is from Canada or Montana and adjacent states (which ends up with Canada grade marks). Boxed frozen hamburgers? If it has passed Canadian grading it may be sold, but could be from anywhere that isn't being accused of unfair trade practices at the moment.
Our local Co-op chain is not into "organics" to any extent; Safeway has more. At this time of the year, much of our fresh produce is from the US and Latin America (plums, peaches, grapes from Chile, tomatoes from Mexico and California) much citrus from Asia but still mostly the States. Some of the apples and pears are Canadian, but the rest are from the States and Asia. Canadians would be very unhappy without Asian mandarin oranges in winter.