Brickbat: It's Not Easy Being Cheesy

A leading environmentalist says one of the goals of New York's proposed Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act is to end individually wrapped single slices of cheese. "We have to do something about the plastic crisis," said Judith Enck, president of  Beyond Plastics and former Environmental Protection Agency administrator. "These companies have to take responsibility for producing the waste. They're getting a free ride right now." The bill would mandate that food producers and distributors with net incomes over $1 million reduce plastics and other packaging that ends up in landfills by 50 percent over the next 12 years. The bill would also fund recycling programs by imposing a fee on companies that use plastic packages.

Comments

[Stuck in California]

Oh, good. So now plastic is a "crisis" as well.

It's almost like the various special interest groups are just following a script. Not even a creative one. Just repeat it until people think it's true, and don't even bother to come up with a new take on it.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Isn't plastic bags already a victim of the plastic "crisis" in CA?

[Stuck in California]

It's the use of the word that piques my interest.

Like climate. Was global warming, then climate change, then, eventually, they got the press calling it "the Climate Crisis."

Gotta make everything an emergency. It's a lot easier to fund your graft get the government to take action out of emergency than out of reasoned debate, you know.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

She heard Braggs and Heaton needed more material for their Great Moments series.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I've tried individual slices wrapped in some kind of paper. Got moldy way too soon in the fridge. How's that for waste? The cheese (before it went moldy!) actually tasted a little bit better than Kraft, bur that was as individual eating slices, they didn't melt as well, and the slices you don't have because they went moldy are worse than useless.

[Azathoth!!]

The goal, plebian, isn't so much to get rid of the plastic, it's to keep people like you and your kind eating the bugs and industrial by products provided by the Party.

Gratitude, pleb. Slavish gratitude. Is that too much for the Party to ask?

[Zeb]

The plastic wrapped single slices are not the same thing as other American cheese slices so I don't know that a direct comparison is valid.

[Vernon Depner]

How much difference is there, really, between American cheese and plastic?

[Randy Sax]

Not defending the new law here, but american cheese is fucking disgusting. I cannot eat it on anything. Pay like a $1.50 more and go to the deli counter to get something actually edible instead. I'm not talking expensive ass french shit or whatever, but just sliced pepper jack or something. C'mon, jesus.

[Mickey Rat]

OK, but why broadcast your snobbery?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Preferring cheese over a processed cheese food product is not snobbery.

[Think It Through]

It's not un-snobbery, either. It's just a preference.

When I want melty cheese on a burger or a grilled cheese, I want good old Kraft.

When I want to make cheese dip, I want Velveeta.

When I actually want to put a piece of cheese in my hands or on a cracker and eat it straight, I want good cheese.

[ducksalad]

It's much better in the spray bottle.

[MatthewSlyfield]

My grocery store, I can get pre-packaged, pre-sliced cheeses other than American (swiss cheddar...) and the slices aren't individually wrapped.

https://www.sargento.com/our-cheese/sliced-cheese/

Individually wrapping slices is necessary with American cheese because it's so soft that the slices will stick together much more than dryer cheeses.

[Ben of Houston]

No it isn't necessary. I recall in my youth we got the big bricks of american cheese slices. It was just like a pre-sliced loaf of bread. The plastic-wrapped didn't come until later and I found it confusing and unnecessary

[Zeb]

I don't know. It has it's place. I'm as much of a food snob as anyone in a lot of ways, but I can appreciate some cheap American comfort food.

[Fist of Etiquette]

They're getting a free ride right now.

Not being regulated to complete death = a free ride. Sounds like plastic has some serious lobby money to shell out.

[Mickey Rat]

The political commissars in NYS need something to do.

[mad.casual]

Ugh! These pallets of cash keep flapping in the breeze and losing bills! If only we had something to wrap them with...

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

As if they're doing it to be evil, not for any practical purposes.

[sarcasmic]

American cheese is plastic. Gross.

[Don't look at me!]

It’s made out of cheese

CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES), SKIM MILK, MILKFAT, MILK, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, WHEY, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SALT, LACTIC ACID, OLEORESIN PAPRIKA (COLOR), NATAMYCIN (A NATURAL MOLD INHIBITOR), ENZYMES, CHEESE CULTURE, ANNATTO (COLOR).

[ducksalad]

I have a theory: Foodies are to cheese as art critics are to modern art.

Take a block of Velveeta, carve it into a rustic, uneven shape, rub the outside with a bit of dirt, and present it at a food festival claiming that it’s produced once a year by Romani when they camp in a remote part of Slovakia.

The foodies will be praising its authenticity, unique mouthfeel, overtones of roasted paprika, perhaps describe it as “playful” or “impudent”.

[sarcasmic]

I really don't think so, since most foodies would look at the starting ingredients, see Velveeta, and barf.

[Think It Through]

Imagine a world where the foodies don't know.

"We've replaced the regular coffee at this fancy restaurant with Folger's Crystals."

[sarcasmic]

I can’t speak for other foodies, but I would know it was Velveeta by the smell (or lack thereof), texture (slime), mouthfeel (snot), and immediate churning in my bowels. Stuff gives me explosive diarrhea.

[Zeb]

I'm sure you can find some asshole you could fool like that. But in general I don't think so. Snobbery can be annoying, but that doesn't mean it's all fake. Some if it is fake, I'm sure. Some people care about being snobs more than about actually knowing about what they are snobs about. But quality ingredients are the key to really good food and a lot of high end expensive stuff really is worth it (if you care about that sort of thing).

[ducksalad]

On the description card I'd be sure to say it was made from the highest quality ("vysokokvatlitny") Slovakian horse milk, available for only two weeks every spring from specially bred mares.

Kidding aside, I'm picky about some stuff (smoked brisket) and like trying expensive rare cheeses. But wine seems like a gigantic crap shoot with no correlation between enjoyability, price, and critics' evaluations, unless you're literally down in the MD20/20 or Thunderbird category. $9 generic "Red" with a screw cap just as likely to be good as $90 varietal with a little calligraphic description card placed next to it on the shelf.

Art though....went to a famous museum in New York and one of the paintings was a square canvas painted blue. The title if IIRC was something like Blue Square #3. Come on, that's just pissing on my leg.

[Zeb]

I'm with you on wine to some extent. There is plenty of good wine under $20. Though I'll go up to $50 on occasion for something I know is really good. Anything much over $100 I really can't see how you are getting anything beyond the prestige of something more rare. But I'm not much of a wine guy.
I do appreciate modernist art. But that might just be because I'm a philosophy major.

[ducksalad]

True story. My wife and I were visiting the home of a modern artist who specialized in "furniture." We went into the shop. The piece in progress was a very nicely handmade end table with a drawer. When you opened the drawer, it contained six carefully hammered copper hemispheres. At least that’s what it looked like to me, and the artist hadn’t said anything.

My wife turned to the artist and said “Yes, I agree that the Catholic Church’s treatment of women has been awful.”

I guess you need the right training and brain wiring.

[Longtobefree]

Just for the record, there is no plastics crisis.
This is a simple money grab, and of course, the consumer, not the companies, will pay the cost.
And all the moldy food in un-plastic packages will fill up the garbage dumps.

[sarcasmic]

Remember when they mandated plastic bags because paper bags were causing deforestation?

[TrickyVic (old school)]

Yep.

Some places had plastic bags to put the paper bag in if it was raining.

[sarcasmic]

Now they’re banned. At least here in Maine. We have to bring out own reusable bags. Those disposable bags are useful though, so I often do my shopping in neighboring New Hampshire where they’re still legal.

Here's the funny part. During COVID they temporarily lifted the ban on plastic bags because the reusable ones get germy.

[Zeb]

That was particularly silly. No one plants more trees than paper companies.

[Idaho-Bob]

C’mon guys, a leading environmentalist said it, it MUST be believed and mandated.

Where the fuck have you been for the last two decades?

[jimc5499]

Four decades ago "leading climate experts" (what ever that is) were saying that we would be in another Ice Age by now.

[TJJ2000]

Global Warming = Another Ice Age?
Seriously; One cannot make-up this stuff. They literally preach contradiction.

[American Mongrel]

She is dominating the current field of environmentalists and it's not even close. Your generation were saving the environment against milkmen and janitors. Besides, Carson wouldn't have been shit without Pippen and Rodman.

Enck = GOAT

[Idaho-Bob]

American Mongrel = worst troll of all time.

Do better.

[American Mongrel]

Dumb jokes and trolling are not the same.

Like I'm the only one that thinks "leading" is a retarded way to describe an environmentalist.

:'(

[TJJ2000]

LOL... Only from a "former Environmental Protection Agency administrator". Now tell us how many cheese wraps it would take to make one single vacuum cleaner. In the land where stupid takes on new meaning.

[Zeb]

Why is putting plastic in landfills supposed to be a problem? I thought we were supposed to worry about it going in the ocean.
I'm all for reducing excessive packaging, but plastic is a wonderful thing.

[Its_Not_Inevitable]

If we're doing it in the U.S. it's wrong. Very wrong. Crisis level wrong. That's all you need to know.

[AT]

“We have to do something about the plastic crisis,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics

"We have to do something about the sheep crisis,” said Bloodfang, president of Wolves Associated.

[kevrob]

What about a technological solution?

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/heres-food-wrapper-you-can-eat-180960287/

Plastic bags that are compostable exist, but they should go to your garbage pickup. They don't work well in home composting systems.

Plastic can be made from corn. It can't be recycled with other kinds.

https://www.treehugger.com/pros-cons-corn-based-plastic-pla-1203953

I suspect some of those demanding we make these changes don't want a tech solution that will allow an approximation of the current way we use plastic and other hard to break-down resources. They want the "hair shirt" factor. They are like the 1950s Catholic priest who frowned on congregants eating really good meatless pizza on Friday. How is that a penance, especially if, like me, you like anchovies and clams?