At least one Ikea in Germany has told its customers not to eat french fries, with the massive corporation complaining that the food is bad for the climate.
People should avoid eating french fries in order to save the planet, one branch of global furniture giant Ikea appears to believe, having ordered customers to refrain from eating the food over its alleged CO2 output.
According to a report by German business magazine Wirtschaftswoche, at least one branch of Ikea put up a sign telling its customers to refrain from eating french fries due to the food’s carbon footprint, instructing the public instead to opt for a greener option with their meal.
“We deliberately avoid fries,” the branch declared. “During processing and preparation, a portion of French fries causes more than four times as much CO2 as a portion of boiled potatoes.”
“By eating consciously, everyone can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases,” it concluded.
Some customers however do not seem to have taken kindly to the instruction, with author Boris Reitschuster — the individual who first brought attention to the sign — saying that he “deliberately” avoids shopping in locations that lecture him.
“[Ikea] ‘deliberately does without’ fries. I deliberately avoid shops that want to teach and patronize me,” he wrote on social media.
“I want to be treated as a responsible customer and not as an educational object,” the author went on to say.
A spokesman for the Swedish-origin multinational has since been keen to emphasise that it is only looking to promote “a healthier and more sustainable way of life” and that the sign is “not about restricting our range of food, but about adding many healthier and more environmentally friendly options”.
While at least certain parts of Ikea appear to be off trying to save the world from climate change, one french fry at a time, others in society appear to have more depressing reasons for avoiding the humble spud — mainly that they simply cannot afford to cook it.
According to a report by The Guardian in March, many people going to food banks in Britain are specifically not taking free potatoes because they are unable to afford the price of the energy needed to cook them.
“It is incredibly concerning. We are hearing of some food bank users declining products such as potatoes and other root veg because they can’t afford to boil them,” Richard Walker, the head of supermarket giant Iceland, said in regards to the phenomena.
Since the report was published, energy prices in Britain and across Europe have gone from bad to worse, with one report published on Thursday claiming that as many as two-thirds of families in the United Kingdom could be shoved into fuel poverty by January.
Even those who suffer this fate may eventually see themselves as the lucky ones however, with the gas situation in Germany now getting so bad that officials are starting to fear they will see widescale revolts and riots over people being unable to heat their homes during the winter.
One official went so far as to say that the coming unrest was going to make the anti-lockdown demonstrations frequently seen in the country over the last number of months look like a “children’s birthday party” by comparison.