The Far Horizon (Dairy)

Horizon Dairy. Weird phone call. I think this may be one of the companies that “farms out” its customer service to people who work at home? I think this because after going through a few computer choices, the phone just went silent for a bit. Then a person seemed to pick it up (not “pick it up” as in “come on the line,” but “pick it up” as if the phone had been off the hook on a desk or something and the person just saw it there and grabbed it up, from the sounds associated) in a panic and said “Hello??!” As if they had not noticed there was a call, but they should have. When I said, “Hello,” the person took a deep centering breath and stumbled into, “Thank you for—th-thank you for calling Horizon Dairy how may I help you?” Odd.

This was also a place that asked my name, “just to better address you,” the person said, but I didn’t catch the person’s name. I keep saying “the person” (I’m sure you have noticed) because the person also had one of those fascinating voices of completely indeterminate gender. Odder.

The particular product I called about—the Horizon Organic Finely Shredded Cheddar Cheese—comes in a “zip-lock”-type bag which, it turns out, is a 5, and which Horizon is aware is “not recyclable in all states.” (Certainly not our state. We can only do 1’s and 2’s, not 4’s or 5’s—apparently there is no such thing as a 3, really—maybe plastics manufacturers superstitiously skip 3, like no floor 13 in a hotel.) Their Organic Sour Cream is also in a container that is a 5. How that can be a 5, and this flimsy-looking bag also a 5, I don’t fully understand, but that is the all-out oddness of plastics, for you.

Well, as for the shredded cheese, of course it is a no-brainer that you can save much money by buying your own organic cheddar and shredding it yourself with your handy-dandy cheese grater. You are still left with the wrapper for the original block of cheese, but at least this is far less plastic per ounce of cheese. This also helps you burn off a few of those calories you are about to consume by covering your whatever with luscious melty cheese (yum!).

The sour cream, though. That’s a stumper. Unless we want to buy our own cow and start learning how to make our own—and if I want to keep these posts useful for “the average American” that would seem to defeat the purpose. I’ve been reading about “Urban Chickens” lately, but I certainly have not heard anything about “Urban Cows.” Perhaps it is time to face the fact that sour cream is a luxury—not to mention a source of fat calories—that we really can (and probably should) do without.

The rep did assure me that Horizon is always looking for ways to make things more eco-friendly. Okay, look fast, or you are losing our business.