I don’t go to Seafood City as much as I used to (I’m always at Whole Foods), but I went the other day because I was craving some coconut juice. The juice I get from Whole Foods is priced at close to $2 for 17.5 fl. oz. of beverage. I bought several cans of 10.5 fl. oz. Pamana coconut juice at Seafood City for about 69 cents each.
Amy & Brian coconut juice ingredients: young coconut juice
Pamana coconut juice ingredients: coconut juice, sugar, coconut pulp water, sodium metabisulfite 30 ppm
Apologies to Pamana, but your juice is gross compared to the Amy & Brian brand. Pamana’s coconut juice is taste too sweet compared to Amy & Brian’s naturally sweetened juice.
I thought I was getting a great deal – 69 cents for coconut juice! And really, what else do you have to add to coconut juice for it to be, well, coconut juice? Obviously spending 3x the amount is worth it to me, health-wise and taste-wise.
I also decided to go on a hunt for organic products in the market. I searched through the produce, through the frozen foods, through the canned goods and found nothing. I even looked at the shelves of certain products because I knew organic products existed for that particular brand (Kikkoman), but Seafood City doesn’t stock them.
WHY NOT? Is it a price thing? Or does Seafood City not care about giving healthy options to its patrons? What’s the deal?
As I checked out, I asked the man behind the counter if the store carried ANY organic brands. He scanned my ube ice cream and thought for a second. “Yeah, didn’t you see? Mangos, bananas… There are a lot over there.” I think he thought “organic” meant “fresh fruit” and I didn’t want to be rude by defining the word, so I nodded my head and told him I would have to check it out next time.
Here’s another question: What’s the deal with Filipinos not understanding what “organic” means? This is the second time it has happened. I don’t think it’s a generational thing because the guy behind the counter couldn’t have been more than 35 years old.
The girl behind the Filipino Desserts counter knew. “No, we don’t use [Safeway/Vons' brand] Organics here.” We talked about how expensive it was to buy organic brands and how they weren’t used to make the puto and hopia at her shop.
Here’s what I think. I don’t think enough Filipinos know what “organic” means to actually care about it. They’re also used to going to specific markets to buy their ingredients, and these markets aren’t carrying organic products. But now the question is, are there ANY Filipino organic brands out there? If they do exist, why aren’t Filipino markets stocking these items? If they don’t exist, why don’t they? Why hasn’t someone in the marketing departments of Pamana thought, Hey, this is a really hot topic right now. Why don’t we have an organic line of our coconut juice! Do they not think Filipinos will buy a more expensive drink, even though it’s healthier (and tastes better)? Maybe. Maybe they’ve already thought about it. I’d like to think that they have.
What it really makes me think is that, although many Filipinos care about their health, they don’t care enough to start eating organic foods. It’s not worth it to them because they can get the same thing for 3x less. They may switch their eating habits because their doctor told them to, but although eating healthier (less fried foods, more steamed vegetables) is good, it doesn’t necessarily mean the food you’re eating is chemical free, which, in the end, still means it’s unhealthy. Why would you want to eat a tomato that carries residual traces of pesticides?
Time to educate the nanays and tatays, right?
