Choice and Waste

With less than six months to go in Burkina Faso I find myself contrasting Burkina and the US. Volunteers who return to the states are often shocked by the complete difference in lifestyle and culture. I’m still in denial that this will happen to me, but I suppose we’ll just wait and see.

One of the tritest experiences from anyone spending a lot of time away from supermarkets is the idea of walking into the supermarket and being completely overwhelmed by the amount of choices. You’ve probably seen this in films about people getting stuck in the wildness for six months. Apparently it’s common for PCVs to feel the same way. Often descriptions of this experience are accompanied by phrases such as “do we really need 10 types of canned peaches” and “it’s so wasteful.” The comments usually seem to imply that we don’t need the plethora of choices or that it is wasteful.

I don’t agree that a large selection is tantamount to waste or is unnecessary.

Let’s take a look at those ten types of canned peaches. Each of these types of peaches is made by a company seeking to gain a profit. Assuming they act to realize this profit, they will either reduce peach prices or stop canning peaches if there are too many canned peaches hitting the shelves, in order to make sure that they can actually sell their product. The 10 different types of canned goodness are pitted into a fierce competition to ensnare potential peach patrons. They’re constantly looking for a way to gain that extra peachy edge, giving them a larger slice of the market. Peach sizes, tastes, colors, packaging and labeling are all changed to the perceived peach-purchasing preferences. Quality is strictly controlled and usually guaranteed.

Now let’s pretend for a second that I could find canned peaches in Burkina Faso. There would be one brand of canned peaches, maybe two if I was really lucky. Stores would almost never have said canned fruity goodness. The cans would often by damaged on transport and/or past the expiration date. If I opened a bad can of peaches no one will listen for more than two seconds and getting a refund or a new can is almost unheard of. There is no choice. Is this somehow less wasteful? or somehow more necessary?

I think the point of the original choice-is-wasteful argument that does stick is that, no, no one really physically needs access to ten types of peaches. And in that sense it is unnecessary. But the benefit of having the freedom to choose really does improve your peach eating experience. It also promotes peach producers to search for the safest, most cost effective method of transporting their peach cargo.

So in summary, I want some canned peaches!