"Organic = bugs --> REALLY?!"
"Ewe, Gross!"
"What do YOU eat for breakfast?"
"What you see is not necessarily what you get, sometimes, there's more!"
Back when I was going to school I learned in several of my science classes that the word "organic" refers to something "living" (or it lived at one time). Some of my professors laughed at the idea of expensive produce because it was "organic". What a great way to make extra money, right? Charge more money for produce because it is "organic". The only problem is that all produce comes from a living plant; therefore, all produce could be considered "organic".I see a lot of produce that is labeled as "organic" and I assume what the grower means it is "harsh chemical and pesticide free".
(Shoot! sometimes it takes me so long-more than one day-to type a post, and I forget what my point was...)
Which is nice, but I don't love buying produce with insects or insect eggs in it. I am never surprised to find a bug in produce grown in my yard, because I just picked it. I do find myself rather disturbed sometimes when I find insects/eggs in purchased produce. More specifically insect eggs that have hatched in the organic grain I purchased and kept in my cupboard in a tightly closed container.
Early last fall I really started getting into grains. I purchased several grains, and made up an 8 grain cereal. I ended up just dumping some of the grains into the mixture because they were so small. I never thought I would open my cupboard and find the above picture. My boys and I had eaten more than half of the grain mixture.
I was shuttering with disgust when I started writing this post over a week ago, but I am starting to tell myself I am still okay. I am not sure what I am going to do. I can't decide if I want to continue with all these grain in cereal, or just sprout them forever more.
What does everyone else do? Grind grains, sprout, pop, eat whole and hard, boil, or just go without all together...
Oh man! That's a harsh reality I never let myself think of. I'm pretty ticked on your behalf...
ReplyDeleteI had this same problem a couple of years ago. I had made Sunday lunch the night before because my favorite former bishop, his wife and two missionaries were coming.
ReplyDeleteI got up early Sunday morning to make dessert, which was going to be some lemon bars made from a Krusteaz mix. I opened the box and a few moths flew up. I opened the back door and ran down to put the box in the garbage.
Back to cupboard, where I grabbed second box of same stuff. Opened. A few more moths flew up.
I put that one outside the backdoor.
Back to the cupboard, I grabbed a third box. Same deal.
And then I opened the last box of Krusteaz fruit bar mix. I didn't even get it open before bugs crawled out. I peeked inside and the top 4 inches of the plastic bag were grey and black with bugs. This was obviously where the bug problem originated.
I called Krusteaz on Monday and they explained to me that because I had let the (non-organic) product sit on the shelf and "expire," the bugs eggs had enough time and had hatched out. They said that the federal government allows them to have a certain percentage of bugs and bug parts and bug eggs in the product. TOTALLY grossed me out.
They sent me 4 coupons for boxes of BUG-INFESTED PRODUCT along with a lovely letter explaining their position that bug parts are acceptable to humans as long as they don't hatch out, so that we see them.
I'm still grossed out. But that type of thing happens a lot more in warm climates. I got to the point where I bought an apartment sized freezer and stuck everything bake-able in the freezer. That was the only fix I could work out.