Planet Green: Supper Club, Rich People and the Real World

Planet Green was recently released to the TV airwaves and by all accounts has had very little to offer.  It has a few shows with very few episodes that sadly seem to be airing on a loop and some how Little People, Big World (a show I happen to love, but is oddly placed on Planet Green) has ended up running episodes on the fledgling network.

Now, Planet Green is basically a part of a chain.  They are owned by the Discovery network of stations, including the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Discovery Health, TLC , Military Channel and the Science Channel.

I thought the idea was going to be worthwhile, interesting and timely but has ended up being filled with rich celebrities telling me how I have got it wrong and what I need to do to fix it.  Probably two of the worst offenders of this is Hollywood Green hosted by THE annoying and over-rated host Maria Menounos (just how does she book these gigs?).  She “delivers the latest in news regarding Hollywood stars and starlets who are going green while making headlines in movies, TV shows, and music.”  So basically, whoever has an album out or a show to promote decides they are going “green”.

The other offender, Supper Club with Tom Bergeron.  I guess both these Dancing with the Stars notables need something to occupy their time between Tango seasons.  In fairness, I actually really like Bergeron…HE is actually good at what he does.  The concept of the show is supposed to be a  Real Time with Bill Maher at the dinner table. A guest chef cooks a “green” dinner for Tom and four lucky celebrity guests.  The chef discusses the “green” products and dinner they are making and how you too can replicate this high-priced meal at home while the celebrities talk about a variety of environmental issues. 

Beyond being boring it is annoying.  I am sick and tired the wealthy discussing how we as a society need to just scale back our consumption and our lives while they live in 5 Million-Dollar homes with 300,000 square-feet.  I am sick of wealthy people talking about “green” architecture that is out of the price range of middle-class Americans.  I am sick of people like Marilu Henner discussing how eating organic may be a little more expensive, but in the long run you “can’t afford not to”. 

Our family IS working, middle-class America.  Generic regular 2% milk is $4.25 a gallon.  If we were to shop organic we would have to add another $1.70. Food prices have gone up across the board.  Staples like milk have risen 26%, eggs 40%.  I would love to purchase those organic vegetables, but I am running into choices.  The wealthy have no clue.  They have lost base with reality.  The reality of most hard-working Americans is that I want to do what is right, but sadly, we are forced into looking at the short run—putting food on the table, filling the car with gas so we can get to work, paying our health insurance, mortgage and still try and put something aside for our children’s future.  College might be nice.

From Rober Gavin of the Boston Globe:

Rising food prices can be particularly corrosive to consumer confidence because people are so frequently exposed to the cost increases. “It’s the biggest risk we face economically, and it might be the thing that does us in,” said Rich Yamarone, director of economic research at Argus Research Corp. in New York. “There’s nothing really worse than having a job, making money, and forking most of it over just so you can have the same amount of food. You’re running in place, and it really weighs on you.”

As with energy, higher food costs cut into discretionary income that buys everything from cars to computers to movie tickets and drives the consumer-based US economy. Falling home values and a faltering stock market have battered consumer confidence, spurring a retrenchment in spending that is contributing to recent job losses and pulling the economy toward recession…..

….Amy Brnger, 43, of Portsmouth, N.H., just needs to look at her grocery receipts. For a long time, feeding her family of three used to cost around $125 a week. Suddenly this winter, her bill leaped to about $200.

Quickly, Brnger, a school counselor and mother of a 9-year-old daughter, looked for ways to save. She buys fewer organic products, which can cost twice as much as conventional goods. Instead of buying chicken breasts, she buys whole chickens and cuts them into parts, saving about $2 a pound. She buys dried beans, instead of canned. And she is baking her own bread.

What these camera-hugging, wealthy Americans have lost site of is that the have-nots have even less and until the basics are fixed and people’s day-to-day lives see a little relief, the Green Movement will suffer and our planet along with it.

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