ajdrew said:
Not really trashing on capitalism. Trashing more on consumers who drive it. In so doing, complimenting the hell out of growers in this forum. Had a moment when the light bulb went on over my head. Check me on this.
Reportedly, capitalism produces the best product at the best price. Unfortunately, it seems to produce the best selling product rather than the best product. It seems consumers has forgotten that the quality of the product is important too. Consider grocery store tomato. Folk often attribute the lack of taste to how they are grown. But there is also the fact that the variety sold in grocery stores is most often those selected for maximum yield and longest shelf life. Not so much for flavor.
Capitalism is also said to promote competition and thus variety, however it is often cheaper to grow and offer fewer options. So competition for price seems to decrease consumer options rather than increase it.
Thinking this is one of the reasons I tend to like gardeners and in particular pepper growers. In these areas they are rebelling against consumerism and business as usual SOP foods.
There's another aspect you're overlooking in narrowly defining the market as "the grocery store".
Farmers markets and boutique vendors are also part of "the consumer market" and discerning consumers who share your desire to obtain higher quality produce will shop outside of the big box stores.
This is also part of capitalism. The corporate greed that causes exactly the result you describe (e.g. yield over flavor as a driving factor in plant selection) creates additional markets, and allows smaller growers to profit from it.
Something similar was going on with roses when I worked in horticulture (roses primarily) in Holland many moons ago. Roses sold at auction at Alsmeer (world famous Dutch plant auction). Bidders sit in grandstands, bidding on carts of cut flowers that are wheeled out. Because of this set-up, buyers are limited in the factors considered for purchase. The most valuable roses had 1. long stems (the longer the stem, the higher the value) 2. color (the years I was there the trend was deep red-to-black or red with black tips on the petals) and 3. longevity in a vase (roses that lasted 6-8 weeks standing were worth more than roses that had a shorter display life).
Unfortunately, when bred for stem length and longevity, the scent was bred out. Bidders didn't even have scent on their radar based on the auction set-up, while consumers had scent as their #1 concern - the 1st thing a consumer does is smell the rose!
This created a thriving secondary market for smaller boutique growers who had roses with strong smell. It also caused an uproar over weak-smelling roses with accusations of corporate greed thrown around. Accurately, I might add.
I remember working on an organic farm in Humboldt back in my college days and customers griping about a $1.49 head of lettuce, since they "could get that same head of lettuce for $0.79 at Safeway!" - only they couldn't, because my lettuce was organic, hand picked, never sprayed with pesticides and "farm fresh" (e.g. not touched by 20 people on the way to the store shelf".) But to the non-discerning consumer, they were identical pieces of produce.
And this is all part of capitalism. Capitalism allows for all levels of quality and rewards producers economically based on supply and demand. Some producers will take the mass-market, high profit, high yield approach and make their bones with lower quality merchandise. Other producers will make their bones with smaller scale operations that focus on quality at the sacrifice of profits.
I guess the same holds true in the hot sauce industry - in theory if I wanted to make more profit per bottle I could reformulate to have 80% vinegar in my recipes, but then I'd have to sell for $1.99 instead of $6.49. There's a reason that style of sauces are top sellers - they're slotted at a very approachable price point to the average consumer. But don't forget that also opens the door for higher quality sauces to be sold at a higher price, but to a much smaller market.
Don't blame capitalism though. It's all capitalism. Consumer demand is just as much to blame. Society has a much greater tolerance for sub-par quality than in days of yore - produce is just one area impacted by this. And then we could go down a deep rabbit hole about the socioeconomic factors that force consumers to tolerate lower quality goods and services, but that's more than I'm ready to bite off in this particular chewing session.
