DB: Quality of Food

The Tacoma Food Co-Op is the coolest thing happening in Tacoma. I am a firm believer in the idea that the quality of life in any context can be determined by the quality of food that is available to the common person within that context. I am delighted by the farmers market, but am increasingly unwilling to drive my scooter out to University Place to get the other kinds of groceries I desire at Trader Joe’s.

I’m a card carrying member of the Olympia Food Co-Op but my scooter does not get on the freeway and grocery bags on the bus is a difficult maneuver. There is little else that our town needs more than affordable healthy food.

I was recently at the movie theater and was forced to watch the equivalent of television commercials before the previews. I allowed this to make me angry until I saw a commercial for Wal-Mart, then I was furious. The premise was that your daughter could buy more Hannah Montana gear for cheaper at Wal-Mart. Little girls were jumping around on H.M. bedspreads in H.M. t-shirts and hats whilst applying H.M. make up jewelry, and hair extensions? All the while singing into H.M. microphones. A mothers voice was saying, “More of what they want at the prices I want.” Then I was struck by a 14ft high Wal-Mart logo, and a robotic child’s voice read the new slogan: “Save Money, Live Better.” I have never been more terrified of America in my life.

Don’t they mean: “spend money here, live like idiots”? Is life better when your children are walking billboards for Billy Ray Cyrus’s daughter? After 19 years of, “Always Low Prices”, I thought that the ability to cash my stimulus check at Wal-Mart was cool, but this? This is pure and unadulterated golden royal jelly fat puss soaked phlegm barf runoff waste ditch sick sick sick.

Thank you Tacoma, for not having a Wal-Mart. Thank you for supporting the Farmers market and the food Co-Op. Thank you for keeping Tacoma healthy. We already live better, and I’ve never eaten a Hannah Montana vitamin supplement in my life.

Saturday there is a party at Peoples Park for the Tacoma Food CO-OP (So. 9th and MLK Jr. Way) from 4pm-9pm. See you there.

Poster by Beautiful Angle