Rant warning! Are we becoming a nation of bone idle wastrels.

Living on my own I find it more economical to buy small packs of prepared vegetables because otherwise I would not get a decent selection without it costing a lot and I would waste more.

My DS will buy ready sliced fruit to eat at his desk - if he wanted a similar mix of fruit to prepare himself, he'd have to buy, e.g. a whole pineapple, a watermelon, a cantaloupe melon, a pack of strawberries, a bunch of grapes, an apple or three. This amount would make up around 10-12 good sized portions and eating them at the rate of one portion a day, the fruit simply would not last.
My DD often buys small packs of prepared veg, or the frozen packs of microwavable steam veg, because she lives alone and ends up wasting so much if she buys whole cabbages, cauliflowers, broccoli heads etc.

I've started to buy pieces of Parmesan cheese and either grate or flake in the food processor before freezing. The ready made stuff in tubs is tasteless and I could never use a whole piece before it went too black and mouldy even for me.
I used to feel prepared fruit totally decadent until I saw a TV programme on pineapple growing. Some of the fruit was prepared on the plantations before being flown out. Ok lots of food miles there, but it made the crop higher value and financed the lives and educated the children of the workers there. So a means to a good end really?

That's interesting, purple, about the preparation of pineapples. So, by eating pre-prepared fruit, we are giving more people jobs. I'd say that was a good thing.

Why is using prepared fruit any different, essentially, from using prepared wool, say, or cotton or leather, or using tools someone else has made instead of making the tools oneself?

It's a trade, an exchange of labour. Nothing wrong with that.

So long as one pays for it.

It's no different from buying lean/boneless meat.

Exactly.

A sign of civilisation and the division of labour.

<politics alert>
Up to a point, perhaps Bags.
I'm sure no-one objects to a division of labour when it involves paying to have one's car serviced, or a builder to add an extension to one's home, when our own particular skills are deficient in that department, but there has to remain a question, as I think someone else mentioned upthread, when it might involve people in third world countries (or even this one) working in poor conditions for a pittance.
Difficult though, isn't it? I can't see many of us wanting to go back to the days when we wore almost exclusively home-knitted sweaters and spent our afternoons pored over our sewing machines, but I did wonder slightly, earlier this week, about the ethics of buying two new sweaters in the Gap outlet.

The thing is, though, they are working, and though their wages may seem like a pittance to us, it is better than what they had before. Things are improving in developing countries, not getting worse, and I think this is largely because of trading such as has been talked about on this thread. Of course it's political. Everything human beings do is political. Political means "how we organise ourselves".

Once again, I recommend Max Roser's ourworldindata.org for actual and positive facts.

Nothing wrong with buy pre-cut fruit and vegetables. We have an allotment and lug home lots of muddy, homegrown fruit & veg which has to be washed, bad bits or tops cut off and chopped or sliced.

But there again if I've nothing in and I see a big bag of diced carrots and swedes for £1 I'll quite happily take that home and use it. A £1 FHS is hardly being extravagent. If I've no salad greens ready to pick I'll certainly grab a bag of mixed leaves.

So best of both world as far as I'm concerned.

Why is using prepared fruit any different, essentially, from using prepared wool, say, or cotton or leather, or using tools someone else has made instead of making the tools oneself?

We are all people of our time. A hundred years ago we would have had to boil up bones to make stock; now we can buy stock cubes. A hundred years ago we would have had to make all our own clothes; now we can buy everything ready made. Further back in time we would have had to grind wheat to make flour, make candles and soap, spin wool and linen.
Are we all 'bone idle wastrels' for not doing these things now? Yes, some people still make their own patchwork quilts, candles, spin and dye their own wool and so on, but they don't have to. It's a choice, they enjoy making things. 17th century housewives had no option.
So today we can buy ready prepared fruit and veg. As bags says, why is this any different?

I am sitting up in bed with a cup of tea (9.42) and GN so no prizes for guessing why I felt this thread is applicable to me

I think if we were a nation of bone idle wastrels then the queues at the chippies and the takeaways would be miles long!

Tea. Another thing for people's guilt trips. Add all tinned foods as well.

e.g. Tinned peaches/freshly sliced and plastic packaged peaches. One is fresh for immediate consumption. One is preserved in a tin for later consumption.

Shrug.

We need to get over feeling guilty about every bloody thing.

And there's nothing wrong with chippies and take aways either. All these things have a perfectly respectable place in modern society.

Who's feeling guilty about tea? Irony bypass.
Anyway, moved on to coffee now

Like lauderettes before most people had their own machine or the hand washing laundries where my grandmother worked from the age of twelve.

Lazy sods, the lot of us. Not.

Nothing wrong with chippies and takeaways - I agree!

I meant if we were truly bone idle wastrels we would all be there every day
Even microwaving a bag of veg would be too much effort

I wonder if there are any additions to the bags of chopped food such as preservatives, sugar etc that we might not be aware of ?

We could always read the label, pattieb.

rq, when I worked in Thailand, everyone seemed to eat food prepared by the Thai equivalents of chippies and take aways on the street at wayside cafes. I'm not talking about tourists. I wasn't in a tourist area.

Street food! Freshly prepared

my last two meals, supper last night and luncht today, were fully prepared by a pub chef and very nice they were too..no guilt either. Buy as much fair trade as you can to be sure food procured ethically.

The Co-op is good for Fair Trade food.

I often buy ready chopped or peeled onion etc for my elderly mother, she is registered blind but wants to be independent as possible, preparing soups, stews etc, after all how many gransneters buy stewing steak or lamb already diced and ready minced beef instead of buying it from your local butcher and preparing it yourself!