Deceptive Advertising Rampant in the Food Industry

Here’s a fabulous video that makes an important point: we consumers are on the receiving end of a steady stream of lies about the products we’re buying.  This particular segment exposes one specific form of this: the word “natural” has no real meaning in our language; our Food and Drug Administration does not object to food manufacturers, with their heavily processed products grown in chemical fertilizers and sprayed with poisons, advertising their products as “natural.”  They’re counting on the fact that consumers will conflate “natural” with “organic,” and they’re right most of the time.

I recall a green products show I attended a couple years back at which I encountered an “all natural” cherry soda.  When I asked how much cherry juice it contained, the young fellow manning the booth replied that there was none.  “Then in what sense of the word is the product ‘natural’ if the cherry flavor is made artificially?” I asked.  “That’s a good question,” he acknowledged.

Of course, there is a limit to what consumers can be expected to do.  How much time are we to spend reading labels, and checking up on the truth of their content?  We’re hoping that either our agribusinesses will behave honestly, or that our government will take the steps that are necessary to protect us from the most blatant forms of deception.  Sadly, on both counts, we’ve hung our hopes on chandeliers.