>>Background : My wife and I participate in a food group with 6 other people. We get together once a month and rotate hosts. It's well known that the political spectrum amongst the group runs from libertarian (me) to socialist with a couple Republicans, Democrats and the disinterested. Politics almost never comes up and the few times it has is usually a minor jab in jest.
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>>Between courses of our last dinner, I'm sitting outside with the socialist. I knew she's a looney, but I had no idea just how far off the left end of the spectrum she resided. I know she volunteered for Obama's campaign, has her radio permanently set to NPR and believes MSNBC is too right wing. Even that knowledge didn't prepare me for the gem she offered this night. We were discussing organic farming, free range animals and what's marketing vs. real and she caught me off guard with "I think that mass production, not just of food, but of everything is a big problem with the world today." 8O
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>>Just when I think I've heard it all...wow, just wow.
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>I don’t know your guest but perhaps she did not express her thoughts properly. Mass production is not likely a problem in itself. But perhaps she meant when profit becomes the driving factor behind mass production. The profit motive (in many, perhaps most industries) drives the efficiency paradigm and that in turn has some quite powerful social and environmental (and other) consequences.

I encouraged her to explain her thought process to be clear I wasn't minunderstanding. She firmly believes that despite the benefits, society has suffered from the very concept of mass production and we'd be better off with small, local production of all goods.

I'm rarely surprised by uber-leftie thought, after all I attended Berkeley, but this was a mouth-agape first. It made my year. ;)