4 ms·

Would definitely love to have a web site where I can go and look up a no-nonsense report on the quality and truthfulness of "artisanal" brands.

evanlivingston 11y ago
I'm curious how another entity could establish quality of something better than you could yourself?
- dv_says 11y ago
  Independent verification. For example, this could have helped in [1][2][3] where toxic food products were very mislabeled. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Taiwan_food_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Taiwan_food_scandal
  - evanlivingston 11y ago
    I guess I was interested in distinguishing between quality and safety.
- JasonCEC 11y ago
  Quality is a tricky word, but in terms of the appreciation of craft goods, your ability to identify the subtleties that make more higher quality products _better_ is a learned trait. If your references are wrong, or you miss out on the identification of a nuance, you haven't learned from the experience. For example, individuals who say "I can't taste the difference between a $30 and $300 bottle of wine" are not _wrong_ - they just lack the formative experiences and education to appreciate the attributes that the more expensive product has. Thus, if you decide that wine or beer or chocolate was of interest to you, it may be worthwhile to validate and trust your reference products.
- HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
  HaaS: Hipster as a service. TaaS: Taster as a service. I got lots more, including a few choice ones I decided not to post :-)
drivingmenuts 11y ago
How do you define "artisinal" in an objective sense? Organic ingredients, locavore, etc. all have definitions, but including them doesn't make something "artisinal" or "craft". I have this awful feeling it'll wind up like the whole organic beef fiasco. USDA certified organic is pretty meaningless, thanks to the lawsuits of large beef producers.

evanlivingston 11y ago

I'm curious how another entity could establish quality of something better than you could yourself?

dv_says 11y ago
Independent verification. For example, this could have helped in [1][2][3] where toxic food products were very mislabeled. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutter_oil [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Taiwan_food_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Taiwan_food_scandal
- evanlivingston 11y ago
  I guess I was interested in distinguishing between quality and safety.
JasonCEC 11y ago
Quality is a tricky word, but in terms of the appreciation of craft goods, your ability to identify the subtleties that make more higher quality products _better_ is a learned trait. If your references are wrong, or you miss out on the identification of a nuance, you haven't learned from the experience. For example, individuals who say "I can't taste the difference between a $30 and $300 bottle of wine" are not _wrong_ - they just lack the formative experiences and education to appreciate the attributes that the more expensive product has. Thus, if you decide that wine or beer or chocolate was of interest to you, it may be worthwhile to validate and trust your reference products.
HeyLaughingBoy 11y ago
HaaS: Hipster as a service. TaaS: Taster as a service. I got lots more, including a few choice ones I decided not to post :-)

drivingmenuts 11y ago

How do you define "artisinal" in an objective sense? Organic ingredients, locavore, etc. all have definitions, but including them doesn't make something "artisinal" or "craft". I have this awful feeling it'll wind up like the whole organic beef fiasco. USDA certified organic is pretty meaningless, thanks to the lawsuits of large beef producers.