My local Safeway is selling more and more produce in packages. Corn is no longer on the cob, so you don't have the job of husking it. Salad is shredded and mixed, just open the package into the bowl and put dressing on it.
What the Safeway buyer wants is convenience, saving time by having someone back in the chain do the work. It's all part of work shifting by the upper middle class--we have money but, unless retired, not the time so we pay others to do stuff.
This trend, which has been going on for decades (think TV dinners in the 1950's), poses a big problem for the advocates of organic farming, CSA's, and similar ideas. You can't ask the farmer to do the packaging, but your market share will be limited if you don't.
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