Who Came First? The Egg or the Carton? An Analysis of Organic Packaging for Italian Retail Chain Esselunga - Re-Thinking Organic Food and Farming in a Changing World - page 117

typology of farming, meaning that the chicken “scratched about, freely and outdoor,
eating chicken feed deprived of fat and animal flour obtained by organic farming, for
which it is not provided the usage of chemical mixture of synthesis for the feeding
of the animals, weed and pesticide and the battle against parasites in field and after
the harvesting” (Esselunga 2010 ). IT stands for the country of origins (Italy); 014
(Ravenna) refers to municipality of the city where the eggs were produced; RA
(Ravenna) is the province of origin; and 386 refers to the location where the egg
was hatched. Unfortunately no information on the location was found based on the
three digits, suggesting limitations of the consumer-citizens due to technical jargon.
Entro suggests the day/month/year by which to consume the product.

6.6 Discussion and Conclusion

On the surface, the abundant information suggests that “information can be brought
together in different ways to accommodate different points of view” (Smith 1998 ,
p. 5). On one hand, the consumer is empowered to choose a product that will bring
pleasure (self-interest) and will sustain a social cause bringing “the ordinary details
of life to become sites of political struggle” (Smith 1998 , p. 5). On the other, the
retailer will have successfully endorsed her/his advertising campaign in compliance
with governmental food regulations. It is only through discourse and the use of
prose and images that both parties are self-satisfied. As Smith ( 1998 ) notes, “it is
discourse that gives actions and behaviors,” (p. 10) the tools to interpret a message in
accordance with a pre-determined ideology. The responsible customer seems more
“pleasure oriented” (Richter et al. 2000 , p. 7), driven by self-actualization, inner
harmony and happiness (Naspetti and Zanoli 2004 ) by the variety of information
provided. However, further analysis of the egg carton revealed a problematic picture
for the consumer-citizen.
The level of details in the labels deserves recognition, as well as caution. The
identification code on the cart box only provides digits and letters. Even if the text
explains how to read those numbers (e.g., IT code

of municipality), it fails to inform the customer that 014 stands for Ravenna. This
information is available in legal documents not accessible at supermarkets, but can
be located after extensive research on the web. Moreover, it was noted during the
analysis that even after extensive research there were still codes not identifiable by
the researcher, pointing at a gap between state, people, and food packaging. These
limitations of decoding caused by technical jargon do not facilitate consumer power.
The jargon of politics does not translate into the language of the mass; rather it only
serves to reinstate a distinction and to maintain a gap between the elite and the
masses. As Williamson ( 1978 ) states, “to fill in gaps we must know what to fill in,
to decipher and solve problems we must know the rules of the game” (p. 99). The
consumer is left to express his/her agency through the creation of trust via food
labels.

D country of production; 014 D