Laugh? I nearly cried

I've just seen this article in the Washington Post.  It's about the difficulties of opening food packaging. 

There may be some point to it, but how thoroughly dispiriting that it goes on and on about the difficulties of opening a bag of lettuce.  Why not buy a fresh sodding lettuce and cut it up yourself?  The article only mentions this truly revolutionary advance in food preparation in passing and in brackets. 

Can someone explain why it is perceived to be an advance for mankind that we now get someone else to cut up our food, spray it with chemicals to make it last longer and shove it in plastic bags so that landfill sites get even more clogged up?