Russia is emerging as a world leader in Organic and unadulterated foods, then please present some evidence that isn't just rehashed propaganda from the cold war era.
This is totally untrue and I have plenty of evidence.
Russian economy is in the free fall. No country can be a leader in anything in situation like that. For most Russians primary goal is to get enough food, quality is secondary.
Evidence 1:
My distant relatives. They live in the big city and buy produce at the grocery store. Not even once they questioned where produce is coming from. They just don't care. I asked don't you want to go to the country side and get home grown meats and plant food? Their response was store bought food tastes as good to them why bother with something else. And everyone they know shops at the same store.
Evidence 2:
Most people live paycheck to paycheck and not only quality is not even secondary, it is not even a consideration. The question is how many times a month can I afford to buy any meat and any cheese. Elderly are especially affected. While at the train station I observed interesting moment. There were 2 old men sitting next to me waiting for their train. The wait was about 3-4 hours. So we went to the on-site cafe to get something to eat. I got liver, potatoes, and some salad for about $6. Those two got instant noodles for 60 cents.
Evidence 3:
This time we stayed in the small town and my dad's friend invited us for BBQ. Early afternoon all of us went to look for meat. One store did not have any. The other store had only chicken left and that's what we got. No question where it came from. That's the only thing they had and that's what we got. Most people in town shop at these stores because prices are much cheaper. Homegrown beef is only available very early in the morning at the wet market and it is very expensive.
Evidence 4:
Russia has shortage of beef. It always had for the last 100 years. Right now due to European/US sanctions Russia is importing beef from Argentina. And that's not organic beef. It is from the largest industrial farms. Here is a good read about beef situation
http://www.rbcdaily.ru/industry/562949994199809Evidence 5:
Effort needed to find quality food. Here in the US I just google and I have many many options. Over there it is a different story. One time Yuri was complaining he cannot find good source. He would go to the market and ask people what do they feed their stock and the usual answer was grain. It took many many days of searching until he located a good and reliable source of grass-fed. And he makes enough to afford it. His brother on the other hand totally does not care about it. Only very determined will succeed and there are so few of them mostly due to the overall health attitude (see next point).
Evidence 6:
Overall health attitude. It is very low. Much much lower than in the US. It struck me how many people smoke. Anywhere you look there are smokers. Old, young, men, women. Then I remembered growing up that almost all my friends started smoking at about 12-14y. I met one of my childhood friends. His dad passed away at 60 from lung cancer. He was smoking all his life. And while he is telling me that he lights up a cigarette. And I'm thinking don't you get it, your dad died because of it and you are doing the same thing. Of course I did not say anything out loud. There is a reason why male life expectancy is around 65. I don't even want to bring up drinking.
Evidence 7:
Health attitude continues. Ecological situation in Russia is one of the worst in the world. Lookup Norilsk. It is the absolute worst place to live anywhere in the world. There are plenty of big cities where air pollution is horrible. Better than Norilsk but still just awful compared to the average industrial city in the US. Here is a list
http://topmira.com/goroda-strany/item/47-samye-grjaznye-goroda-russia-2013I remember the first time I visited Philippines, exhaust fumes hit you right in the face. Russia is just a little better in that regard but still terrible compared to Europe/US.
Is that enough or should I go on?
Of course not absolutely everything is gloom over there. In my opinion Russian bath in the country side is the best thing ever. There are definitely places where living is decent. But there are so few of them that it makes little difference overall. You have no idea how silly you look when you bring up these phantom leaderships. There is a reason why millions of people fled Russia in the last 20 years. Just last year 250,000 left.
