We Trust What We Own / Control: The Difference Between Elites and Commoners

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It sounds too obvious to be profound: we trust what we own / control. Of course we do. But it becomes profoundly consequential when we add the shadow half of the statement: we don't trust what we don't own / control without constant feedback providing verifiable evidence that it is worthy of our trust.

Absent this positive verifiable (i.e. factual evidence based on both data and personal-anecdotal experience) feedback, we have good reason to assume whatever we don't own / control is primarily serving the interests of those who do own / control it. And since this means the product/service's trustworthiness is suspect despite claims that it serves our interests, we must seek a steady flow of feedback substantiating that the product/service is still providing the value the owners / managers are claiming, either explicitly or implicitly.

In other words, hands-on knowledge about the inner workings of the product/service generates trust. Absent this experiential knowledge, we're flying blind as to the true value of the product/service.  If the actual value is less than the owners / managers claim, both the owners / managers and the product/service they're providing are unworthy of our trust.

Consider a simple example: the food we put in our mouths to sustain us.

When I collect fruits and vegetables I've grown here in our yard, I have direct knowledge of what went into the care and nurturing of the plants/trees/soil, so I know that there are no pesticides or herbicides and there are an abundance of micronutrients in our food due to the careful management of compost and fertilizers.

The food we eat from our homestead is therefore trustworthy.

We get lettuce and beets from a longtime family friend who has been farming for decades. He takes great pride in his produce and works extremely hard to raise the highest quality produce. Though I don't have direct knowledge of his day-to-day practices, I know and trust him and I can see the vibrancy of his produce and taste its quality.

When my wife's cousins drop off some fresh-caught wild fish, we know the fish was raised in the pristine waters around the island and is wild-caught. Yes, it may have absorbed mercury from the fish it consumed, but this is a known factor. No one is claiming it's anything other than wild-caught; whatever risks are inherent to that are understood.  

These people are in our trusted personal network.

You see the gradient of trust: first level is first-hand experience/knowledge, second level is trusted personal network.

Compare this to produce labeled "organic" in a supermarket. We are making a great many assumptions about the produce this label is attached to.  We assume the agency monitoring the actual farm practices is thorough and accurate, but this is quite a stretch in the real world. Are inspectors onsite every day? What exactly do they test? Where are the results posted?

Produce, organic or not, is a commodity, and nobody is testing the nutritive content of the produce. Maybe one field hasn't been depleted of micronutrients, while the rest have been over-farmed and depleted of the micronutrients we need to be healthy.

Since all produce is a commodity in global markets, they're all interchangeable: one kilo of organic tomatoes or wheat is interchangeable with any other kilo of organic tomatoes or wheat, so there's no way to tell if the "organic" produce or meat has high or low nutritive value. All that's being claimed is that no  pesticides or herbicides were applied and whatever compost and fertilizer were applied were organic.  That's entirely different than claiming the produce/meat is high in nutritive value.

Plants have immune systems, too, and a healthy plant provided with sufficient nutrients and water will resist insect infestations, fungi, bacteria, etc. far better than plants raised in depleted soils.  Anyone with experience in actually growing fruits and vegetables is keenly alive to signs of nutrient deficiency or infestation.

Plants that are healthy are visibly healthy and taste wonderful. It's easy to see the bright-green, vibrant Malabar spinach growing out of a compost pile is healthy and nutritious. But I can say this because I know what went into the soil and compost pile.

The point is "organic" doesn't mean the produce or meat is packed with nutrients. It just means the minimal guidelines qualifying the product as organic (or "bio") were met. Those guidelines don't guarantee a product packed with micronutrients. That takes extra care and tracking that isn't done in a commoditized economy.