This is a chapter from the book "How Dog Food Saved the Earth by Kory Swanson and Anthony Zolezzi.

Date:   5/1/2006 4:27:22 PM ( 18 y ago)

“Would you mind, terribly, if I helped myself to a couple of strawberries?”
Martin asked the field manager as he bent down and
plucked a couple off of the nearest bush.

“No, I don’t mind, take as many as you want.
But I wouldn’t eat any of ‘em if I were you.”

“But these strawberries are beautiful.
They’re perfect.” Martin replied.

“They might look pretty and they may seem perfect,
but they’re sprayed with chemical pesticides and herbicides.”

“But I love strawberries.
I’ve eaten them my whole life and these might just be the best looking strawberries I’ve ever seen.”

“Looks can be mighty deceiving.
It’s what you don’t see that’s the problem.
It’s the stuff we spray on ‘em.”

“Why? What kind of stuff do you spray?”

“We spray pesticides. We spray herbicides.
We spray for anything that might hinder the growth
of the strawberry plants. You know, weeds and beetles
and caterpillars. We pretty much kill anything
that isn’t a strawberry plant. And since we kill
off everything in the ground, even the good stuff, we have to also spray chemical fertilizers so that the strawberries
grow big and are more profitable for the company.”

“So these strawberries are covered in chemicals?”

“Yep. We just sprayed yesterday.”

The web site for the book is here.

http://www.asmbooks.com/

and:

http://www.howdogfoodsavedtheearth.com/

I am doing some research on Organic, Ripe,
Strawberries,and what it would take to
bring them in during season to our local
Whole Foods Market.

Their is a cost factor.
We sold these ripe organic strawberries
at the same price as the commercial organic strawberries
that were picked five days before.

The Rodriguez strawberries were picked
that morning. I stayed at the store
from around 10-12:30, then came back
2:00-4:00 PM and did some more research.

I came into the store near closing.
All but four baskets of the 120 were sold.

They were packing them away.
I called this morning, and I am sad to say,
they were likely tossed out in the morning,
and not put back on the shelf.

These could have been frozen, or something.
It is going to be a whole lot of work to educate
the shoppers and the store about bringing
ripe, farm fresh

The experience of test marketing this food,
normally only available through the Farmers' Market
was profound.

more later..

Your Enchanted Gardener,
Leslie


 

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