The Winner of "The Most Unconscionable Product of the Year" Award

Trader Joe's Himalayan Pink Salt Crystals

Shari bought this on an impulse about a month ago and I've been stewing about it ever since. First of all, salt is salt, so when I read on the label that this "completely natural" product is a "versatile seasoning" and that I should "enjoy the delicate flavor," my reaction is 1) true, salt is versatile even when it isn't pink and 2) salt does not have a delicate flavor; salt is...salty.

But leave that standard advertising baloney aside. Read the label. Product of Pakistan. Packed in South Africa.

Somewhere in the Himalayan Mountains Pakistani miners are digging out pink salt, packing it in bags or barrels and sending it out in trucks down to a port on the Arabian Sea, where it is loaded onto a ship that travels 5000 miles to South Africa where it is offloaded onto trucks, taken to a plant where it is packed in these little plastic grinders (and who knows where these are made and where the oil for the plastic comes from), it is then packed back onto trucks, taken to the port, put on another boat and travels 10,000 miles to Los Angeles (or maybe 8,000 miles to east coast of the US) offloaded onto another truck, which takes it to Trader Joe's national distribution center, where it in turn is loaded onto more trucks and delivered to regional distribution centers, where it is loaded on to still more trucks and delivered to your local Trader Joe's. Where Shari buys it for $1.99. Talk about your carbon footprint!

I realize that $1.99 is probably about 100 times what it is worth, but still, isn't it remarkable after the journey these pink crystals have made and all the miners, truckers, crewmen, packers, clerks and so forth who have to be paid (a pittance to be sure, until it reached our shores) that this little, silly  container of designer salt (which I'm thinking of pouring over an icy spot on the stoop) can be sold for  a price low enough to throw into your shopping cart without thinking?

But I also realize is that if suddenly we all realized just how stupid and wasteful it is to get pink salt from the Himalayan Mountains, we would probably destroy the economy of a little village in Pakistan where all they have to sell is their access to unusual looking salt and put out of work an unknown number of factory workers in South Africa.  A worldwide economy based on selling crap to each other.