The Same Product Same Quality Fallacy
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Living a life of abundant wellness, free from disease can be challenging in this modern world. In many ways, you need to leave the modern world behind in order to achieve this goal.
You could be doing everything "right" but still feel lethargic, have autoimmune disease, feel unhealthy, have gut issues, and more.
This presents the question of “what is there to possibly do?”, and the solution isn't always obvious.
The first step is to be a conscious and discerning customer. Consider the following scenario:
Two Organic Potatoes, Different Outcomes
Two companies sell organic potatoes.
One company is family run for fifty years, and they are devoted to growing the healthiest spuds possible. Their farmland is unspoiled from zero or minimal chemical use and has been that way for generations. These potatoes are awesome, and everyone who eats them feels happy and healthy.
The second company is more concerned with making a profit rather than growing the best potatoes possible. They know organic potatoes sell for more compared to non-organic potatoes, so they recently converted to the minimum required organic farming practices. Beforehand they grew GMO wheat, corn, and soybeans, exposing their farmland to heavy amounts of pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides (like glyphosate) for decades. Heavy metal concentrations in the soil are highly elevated.
In the second scenario, the potatoes are labeled "organic" but sell for less on the marketplace because discerning businesses and customers know of the lands prior history. Once in stores though, their organic potatoes now hit that price point right in-between cheap diseased produce and expensive healthy produce. Potatoes from both farmer #1 and farmer #2 share the same label: organic potatoes.
You can even go a step further. The second farmer could circumnavigate organic growing practices like crop rotation by saying it’s not feasible for their land, therefore granting them use of use chemicals like chlorpropham (a hormone inhibitor) while still keeping the organic label. Farmer #2 might sell his potatoes far from where he grows them, and since transport takes time, chemical preservatives are used to extend shelf lifespan. Farmer #2 could exploit every loophole to their advantage and on the label it’ll still say “organic potatoes”, the same as farmer #1.
Via the labels, both farmers sell the same product, but as we now know, the quality varies dramatically.
Bureaucracy Does Not Know Best
We see in the above scenario how one ingredient, potatoes, grown by two different farmers can be dramatically different. And there are multiple similar scenarios (such as water pollution, lax governmental testing standards, etc) which can dramatically change how healthy or diseased a food item is even though on a nutrition facts label it is labeled the same.
This is called the Same Product Same Quality Fallacy, because at first thought you'd expect a product or supplement with the same labels to have the same quality and price. The label doesn't take into account all of the different factors which can influence the nutrition of a food item, and those factors have big impacts on the final quality of the food.
“As it concerns your health, the responsibility is yours and yours alone.”
It is your responsibility to thoroughly research the foods you eat and the products you use. The more frequently you consume or use something, the more important it is to perform quality checks. This can be a daunting prospect, which is why following your instincts is so important. Place your trust in people, not corporations.
Farmers markets are great for this reason because you can see the produce grown by dozen of local organic growers in one place. The secrets when it comes to eating food which provides wellness and not disease is to eat foods which are still alive and not dead. Fruits and vegetables are the reproductive organs of plants responsible for growing into the next generation. When purchasing produce, consider these factors:
The colors of the produce are vibrant, exuding energy.
The samples have incredible taste and flavor.
Size matters not!
Water content is high, nothing is dried out.
Check for signs of disease, pits, irregular features.
Is the food from nearby or from far away?
Following your instincts and opting for quality in your foods and health care products now will preserve your happiness and save you time and money in the future.