Name
Organic Food
Aka
The Fresh Food Swindle
Crew
One or more greengrocers
Victims
Lovers of fine organic produce.
The Scam
If I were perfectly honest, I can't tell the difference between organic food and pesticide coated plastic food. As far as I can tell, an apple is an apple is an apple. Without a skull and cross bones staple across my zucchinis there is no way I can tell what I'm eating. So I trust the labels. Those eggs are from grain fed, free range chickens with masters degrees in women's studies? Great! I'll pay double!
So when a con artist wants to make a few bucks and off load some old vegies, the organic label comes in the handy. The con artist goes to the farmer's market and buys up all the slightly wilted or spoilt produce at a bargain. He then heads over to another market where he sells the same produce at a marked up price claiming the food is 'organic.'
The bruised and spotted look of the tomatoes and the limpness of the lettuce is passed off as the unique unsterilised look of real food, straight from the cottage garden.
Variations
- Battery eggs labelled as free-range.
- Basmati rice diluted with the cheap stuff.
- Fake labels on cheap wine
- "Local' produce from China
- Claiming farmed fish comes from the wild
- Gentically modified stuff jammed into GMO free food.
Take
It doesn't seem like a big earner, selling a 50c tomato for $2. But we all have to eat and our increasingly health conscious culture is always keen to pony up dough for the latest, natural food.
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