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food is dangerously tainted by con–
tact with plastic, aluminum, Styro–
foam and such.
lt
is now widely
recognized, for example, that the
solder long used on tin cans has
been a source of toxic lead in the
diet.
So many of the containers into
which food is put are not able to
keep the contents from spoiling,
discoloring or changing in texture.
In an effort to counteract this, var–
ious chemical preservatives are
added to food or the food is pro–
cessed or refined, all of which pro–
cedures render it less suitable for
human consumption.
In addition to substances pur–
posely added to much container–
ized food, there can be found cer–
tain undesirable elements that the
huge packaging industry has no
practica! way of keeping out. For
this reason, U .S . government reg–
ulations actually allow a certain
number of rodent hairs, rodent
feces, insect parts and other kinds
of dirt to be included in packaged
food. ·
When you prepare food at home,
you discard that which is moldy,
blemished, worm-eaten or other–
wise spoiled. But when it's a ques–
tion of tons of tomatoes going into a
batch of commercial tomato sauce,
for instance, despite human S!lper–
vision, there are bound to be toma–
toes included that individually you
would refuse to serve at your table.
The same is true of any other com–
mercially prepared food .
This subject is far more vast than
commercial food packaging though.
Almost everything we purchase is
packaged in sorne way.
It
either
comes from the factory like tbat or
we ourselves slip it into a plastic
bag in the store that in turn is put
into one or more paper or plastic
bags at the cbeckout counter. Tex–
tile fabrics may also be taped and
stapled shut in an effort to discour–
age shoplifting.
Basic human dishonesty is one of .
the reasons a society becomes over–
paékaged. Smaller items (tbat
otberwise have no real need to be
wrapped) are enclosed in large
hard-to-open plasticized containers
to make them difficult to steal.
But whatever the reasons for
using all the boxes, bags, wrap–
pings, caos, bottles, strings, wires
6
and tapes, the problem is that they
have to be disposed of eventually.
True, sorne packaging is biodegrad–
able, that is, once it is
properly
dis–
posed of (that too often means it
must be picked up from where it
has been carelessly dropped or
tossed and then disposed of prop–
erly), it will eventually decompose.
But much in the way of wrappings
and containers does not fall into
this category. Such must be recy–
cled, if that is possible and conve–
nient, or hauled away to immense
dump sites and landfills. In larger
cities, massive disposal systerils are
required.
Consider your own garbage that
you regularly put out to be col–
lected. How much less would you ·
have to put out if you didn't have so
much unnecessary packaging to
discard and if you put food scraps
into a compost heap behind tbe
house? For sure, fewer refuse col–
lection trucks would be needed and
far less refuse would have to be
disposed of, to the relief of munici–
pal budgets.
Many of our lakes, rivers,
streams, beaches and highways
would be in much better shape
without all the packaging that is
tossed into them and onto them.
Also, there would be less industrial
pollution and better use of
resources if nonessential packaging
were not manufactured in the first
place. Many societies get along fine
without using so many wrappings
and containers. Something is wrong
when an over-commercialized,
over-industrialized society must
struggle to keep from being over–
whelmed by the excessiveness of its
own rubbish.
A Lesson from Nature
Did you ever notice with what wis–
dom packaging is used in nature?
Not everything in nature is pack–
aged. Not everything needs to be
packaged. But when packaging is
used, it is used appropriately and
well.
To illustrate, let's go back to the
peanuts. Who can design a better
container than the one they come in
naturally- peanut shells? They
keep dirt and light out, tend to
maintain freshness, are easy to
open, take up little space and are
totally biodegradable. The same
holds true for many other edible
nuts- though sorne may be a little
harder to open.
Have you ever looked closely at a
banana peel? Now there is a marvel
in packaging englneering! It's as
easy to open as a zipper and serves
as a convenient holder so you can
keep your hands clean while you're
eating.
In addition to being biodegrad–
able, as all packaging in nature is, a
banana peel wíll never fool you,
that is to say, you' ll never open one
and find it half empty. Nor is a
banana likely to be defective if the
peel- untampered with by man, of
course-looks good. What you see
is what you get. This is real truth in
packaging.
Sorne of nature's packaging is
edible. It is meant to be eaten along
with the contents. Such is the case
with berries, potatoes, tomatoes,
cucumbers, string beans, figs and
so forth. In these cases the packag–
ing not only does not have to be
thrown away, to the contrary, it
contains valuable nutrients and is a
vital contribution to roughage in
the diet.
In sorne cases we eat the packag–
ing and only part of the contents
(as apples, peaches, plums, apri–
cots). The part we don't eat, the
seed or stone, is discarded-often
into the ground where it can spring
forth into a new generation of fruit–
bearing tree. Nothing is wasted in
nature.
·
Anyone who has drunk orange
juice from a plastic bottle and
detected a plastic taste, and won–
dered what to do with the bottle
afterward, or who has drunk it
from a can and noticed a tiny stale
taste, should consider the orange
juice container designed by God.
An orange is, after all, mostly a
ball of juice. But you can't spill it,
and air does not get to the juice to
rob it of its vitamin value, for it is
packaged in a marvelous way.
Once you remove the attractive
outer skin that so well preserves the
freshness of the contents, you will
find that what is inside can be
divided into sections- thin-skinned
sacks full of golden juice.
But don't worry if .you puncture
one of these sacks. The juice will
not come gushing out. You can
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The PLAIN TRUTH