IN DEFENSE OF MONSANTO

Yum!

The title of this blog has very little to do with its content; I used it principally to get your attention.  However, in passing:  I know that most of you detest Monsanto, but you are misguided.  If it weren’t for Monsanto (and similar firms) that are responsible for GMO crops such as soya beans and corn, as well as sophisticated pesticides, we would have mass starvation world-wide.  Not in  rich, pampered places like Seattle, but surely in Djibouti.

No, what I’m on about here is our love affair with “healthy foods”.  An initial caveat:  I am all for eating fresh fruits and vegetables: nothing can beat Boxx’s berries or local corn.  What I avoid are foods conspicuously labeled “organic”.   They always cost more, and I suspect are no healthier than the stuff I buy.  I only buy “organic” when I can’t find an alternative.

This blog came about because of something I found in my freezer; what I took to be a small container of chocolate-coconut ice cream.  I don’t know how it got there, but there it was.  I opened it last night because I had run out of strawberries and French vanilla ice cream.  I should have suspected something when I saw that it was nearly full; only a few small spoonsfull were missing.  However, without reading the label I dished out a little and attacked it.

Well, it tasted like library paste flavored and colored by molten crayons.  I dumped the whole mess into a bowl, then set it on the floor for my cat to eat.  She approached it cautiously, sniffed, then licked.  Up, popped her tale, and she stalked away, filled with indignation.  She still eyes me with suspicion and won’t get on my lap.

So I read the labels.  This stuff turns out to be non-dairy, free of refined sugar, devoid of GMO-modified ingredients, gluten free, and does not contain several other “unhealthy” ingredients I can’t name because my cleaning lady just dumped the carton. 

My point?  To heck with “organic”.  I will eat whatever I want, and buy it as cheaply as is convenient.  But, of course, I’m 84.