Oh, What the Heck. One More from Dole in Plastic Wastefulness!

I think I picked on Dole before. I can't help it - when I am looking through coupons and I see the word "convenient" screaming up at me, I gotta look at it.

"Mornings just got easier  and even more delicious!"

There was no really great picture to show you the dual-plastic containers. But in searching images, I was treated to just how many Dole products are enshrined in plastic. Yay. They have those shaker smoothies - aha, I knew I picked on them! - and some products called crisps, which seem to be fruit ensconced in plastic with oats or some such in a separate plastic coffin of its own. Then they have just plain fruit in plastic. And they have these. These just-add-hot-water oatmeal with a small plastic sarcophagus of fruit above that you add in after you heat your oatmeal. Amazing company - I really hadn't dreamed of this many ways to trash the planet. They really have it together on that. It's downright admirable!

"Convenient, portable cup." And sugar, and sodium. Look, I know you barely have enough time to properly wipe you ass most mornings, but do you really think these are the best things for you for breakfast? Must you trash MY planet because you can't manage your time properly? Because you can't be bothered to feed yourself the right way? Because you can't just grab an apple instead? Because you can't plan ahead?

I know. Just move along. Nothing to see here. The shareholders of this company really need never worry. Maybe they are privately owned. I don't know. Someone's rich off our laziness, that's all I know. And they aren't going to get poor or go out of business any time soon, no matter how much of a tiny little gnat I continue to be. It's OK. I'm getting used to it.

Dole Makes It Easy

Ahhh, they sure do. Sending fruit to lunch for the kids has never been easier. Just buy and send. What could be easier?

Hmm. I don't know. How about just frickin' buying fruit and freezing it yourself? "But you can't get blueberries fresh all the time." How about that. Maybe go without blueberries if you can't get them at a certain time. You won't die. "But pineapples are really hard to cut." So don't eat them. "But I want them." You can't want them that badly if you can't even be bothered to do the work of cutting them. "But I don't have time to do this for my kids. It's easier to buy this stuff." You don't have time? Then why did you have a kid or three? Shouldn't you have the time to do something properly if you are going to do it? Are you telling me you are doing a half-assed job of raising your kids because you are too busy to do it right? Nice.Tell me I'm wrong, cuz that's what I'm hearing.

By all means, since you do not have time, please continue to consume plastic products, which increase the need for oil production, and keep buying these things for your kids to throw away, because actually they are the ones who will have to deal with the mountain of plastic garbage from their childhoods anyway. They'll only have themselves to blame. It's cool.

Yet another example of a product where we could take a second to think, "Is this really worth the plastic waste created here? Or can I do without it? Is there a better way?" But we don't.

I cannot find out what kind of plastic this is. I'm not inclined to go to a store right now to look, either. Is it #2? 5? If they get thrown away at school, I hardly think they are going in the recycling. So they are going in the garbage. Nice. Hello, Ocean. Bet you thought you had enough plastic already, huh?

Nope.

Applesauce on the Go

Packets of applesauce kids just squeeze into their mouth? How fun! Me: What do you do with the package when finished? Them: We're partnered with TerraCycle, have you heard of them? Me: Yes, actually, they are a great company, that's cool.

I take a sample and walk on. I'm far from sold, but, you know, I play it all cool. For the next few days, I just stare at it. Should I try it? 100% fruit, no refined sugar. No spoon, no mess! No preservatives, no artificial flavors, no gluten, dairy, nut, or even BPA.

After pondering this product for days, I finally pop the little sealed yellow cap and squeeze. It's a little fun. I feel like a kid. I can see how this would appeal to kids. Apple-Banana. So much more fun than a boring old REAL banana. And eww when you cut an apple they get all brown by lunch.

Tasty? Eh. It somehow tasted fake even though all it is, is real ingredients. Maybe I'm just spoiled by knowing what a real apple should taste like, or applesauce made right in my very own crock pot. Maybe I've never had apple and banana mixed together. Maybe I just don't want it to taste great? Maybe some of the other flavors are better? Do kids like these??? Of course they do. They're FUN!

So... yay or nay? Well, nay of course. Duh - don't you know me by now??? TerraCycle is great, but are they getting every single GoGo pack when it's done? Or is it sometimes just easier to throw it away? Sometimes? I mean, sometimes you just are not near a TerraCycle can. Sometimes, just sometimes, a garbage can is much handier. It's just a little thing. One won't hurt anything.

Until you realize how that scenario plays out a million times or so.

Hip, cool, trendy, convenient, no mess no fuss... whatever. I'll never understand. I'll never get why, if you plan on having a family, that you don't realize everything will be harder, messier, and more time-consuming, but the whole point is that your progeny are able to have a nice place to live, too. I mean, who says, yeah, I want to have kids so they can grow up on a ruined planet and their kids can have cancer? When we don't pay attention to what we KNOW is happening around us, I feel like that is exactly what we are saying.

Are these GoGos ruining the planet? Of course not. It's the mentality that is behind them that is.

Give the kid a damn real apple already. Only, be careful, it was probably force-ripened on its way to you because it's not in season where you live. Just because this product is All Natural doesn't mean it's All Good.

Torn Again.

So, there is this snack food. It's good, healthy, raw, gluten-free, non-GMO... all kinds of good stuff. Just freeze-dried fruit. A really good snack food all around when you need/want it. Better than chips, or anything fried or overly-processed or filled with soy product. So why am I torn?

Crunchies, Nature's Ultimate Snack Food, are made in the USA and are by all accounts very good for you. Great on the go. Good for kids, good to mix into almost anything, up to 9 servings of your daily fruits and veggies. So what's my beef with them? (little pun there)

Well, let's move past the packaging, which of course rankles. That should be obvious to anyone who has been here before! No, instead, it is a little factoid my husband pointed out on the package: "Did you know: It takes 8-10 lbs of fresh fruit or vegetables to make 1 lb of Crunchies?" This is a selling point, apparently, because it is right on the package.

.......umm.....

Do you hear the crickets? It's what I hear.

Does that seem... confusing? Can't more people be fed with the 8-10 pounds? I'm confused. Someone please explain this to me. OK, yeah, the method of freeze-drying makes this snack available to more people than that 8-10 pounds of fruit or vegetables. The nutrition is still there. You can still eat these off-season, or they can get to a place that fresh fruit can't reach. OK. That must be valid. I still can't wrap my head around it. Maybe since you find these mostly in the stores I don't like as much, and that a package can cost, say, $5, that you can forgive my doubting that this is an entirely great thing. It's not like these are going to be shipped to poverty-stricken areas or starving kids. These are simply a "convenient" (says so right on the package, you know how I feel about THAT word), froofy, over-priced hip thing. Sure, you can get your kids to eat their fruit this way. Sure, you can be all cool with your bag of oh-so-cool edamame and rice. You're so cool. You have stuff from Whole Foods. You must have disposable income and be someone I want to hang with. That's what these packages say. Mmm hmmm.

So, yeah. I'm not sold. I had the sample pack, I tried them, they didn't suck, but I know I don't need them in my life. Save yer packaging an' yer over-priced hip snack food. I'll eat and actual pear. And if it is not in season, I won't eat it. And if I have my own pears, I'll can or dehydrate them myself and enjoy them another time.