Pensive poverty
We know about the butterfly effect, the phenomenon whereby a small localised change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere. Where minute insignificant issues in the here and now can impact significantly in the future. Sustainability in action.
I grew up with a thing I termed the Kelloggs Effect which still impacts to this day.
To me the Kelloggs Effect is where you take positive credence from that first impression, first view, first smell, first listen or first taste as a lasting event and transpose them into everyday behaviours. Doesn’t really matter if there is better, longer, bigger, greater or more apt, the effect is lasting. Is that why a role in the waste industry became a vocation? Or has nostalgia just supported that purpose.
Let me explain.
Growing up in the West of Scotland through the 70s and 80s my dear mother had to work night and day to make ends meet. Oddly enough, mainly because my father was still trying his industrious best to grow up in the 60s.
Mum brought up 4 of us kids. Alone, as many women did back in the day. Very cyclical as the economy ebbs and flows, dips and grows I know, but to make those ends meet she shopped frugally in the fore runner to models such as Farmfoods and Aldi in a shopping phenomenon called Fine Fare. It became many things after the 70s until it’s demise but it was always Fine Fare to me, which is where the Kelloggs Effect comes into play.
Monday (some link with family allowance and poverty ) were shopping days. To stay within budget, mum had to buy the odd supermarket brand. I say the odd, our many free carrier bags were yellow with all those value brands with the odd premium brand thrown in for effect.
Mum like many before her prevented waste well before it became mainstream. Not in a yogurt crocheting kinda way but because she had to. Because why would you spend more on premium brands when value versions could help my brother get shoes that year. Which from memory, I’d wear the next, whether they fitted me or not. And that’s where the Kelloggs Effect began.
Without sounding Monty Pythonesque, mum would buy a box of horrible, mealy, grainy, cardboard like cornflakes for a healthier more apt breakfast for us kids. A brand unknown to all apart from those who were struggling to bring up a bunch of weans.
But you know what, after a while, the flavour and texture became palatable to the point that they were tasty. The cornflakes just became the norm as palatability can be learned by all animals. Even a wee Ayrshire boy. And thats when the Kelloggs Effect first came into being.
Mum and I (well mum actually) didn’t by into the hype, the PR tosh or the multi-million pound marketing campaigns because those grainy flakes were all I knew and frankly all she could afford. We didn’t know what food waste was or indeed any other type of waste. I wasn’t the only one in the street wearing a Bay City Rollers jumper three years after they split up. When I think back as that selfish teenager, I didn’t know the half of the sacrifices parents make.
Who remembers Vesta curries? Horrible arguably! But mum made these fairly regularly as a treat and the flavours were amazing. Going from blander than bland in equal measures served with portions of tatties to a Vesta Curry was like the first opening of the spice trail from the East to Glasgow to the palate of a young Ayrshire boy. The Kelloggs Effect in action. There is clearly better out there but I’ll always remember mum slogging over the Vesta Curry.
The Natalie Imbrugio hit Torn in the 90s! Seemingly there are better, even original versions out there but Natalies is the best version I’ve heard. Why? Because it was the first and all I knew for long and weary. The Kelloggs Effect.
Tennents lager a classic staple in the West of Scotland. Without doubt there are better lager/beers in this premium driven world but it’ll always be the best to many. The Kelloggs Effect.
Fray Bentos steak n kidney pie! Who from the 70s doesn’t have good memories of that staple. Yep it might not comply with any trade descriptions tests but hey ho nostalgia and the Kelloggs Effect is a heady mix.
So maybe those minute insignificant issues back in the day did impact significantly in the future. Clearly those early frugal steps around Fine Fare made me interested in the efficient use of resources or maybe my dear mother showed me the value of stuff or maybe I’m just tight.
Of course conceivably I just fell into the world of waste resources at the right time when the world began to be passionate about the true value of those resources as the economy ebbed and flowed once again.
But a little bit of me thanks Fine Fare value brands and my mum.
The Mindfulness Gap 