Haven't they seen the movie?

By J. Thomas Duffy

Talk about Sisyphus, pushing the rock uphill.



World's 'freshest organic' cola set to launch next week

LONDON - Cow Cola is to be launched next week with backing from a number of leading US investors, and the positioning 'Made on farms. Not in factories'.

The company aims to challenge Coca-Cola and Pepsi in the soft drinks sector, positioning itself as a more natural, healthier and better-tasting product than its rivals.

[snip]

The product gets its name from the way that it has been manufactured, as the drink is made from genetically engineered cows, as opposed to being created in a factory.

The origins of Cow Cola go back to 1996, when a farmer in Lithuania discovered his milk was cola-flavoured. It was later discovered that his neighbour, a bar owner, was pouring waste cola from his bar onto the field where the cows grazed to make the grass grow better.

Scientists at the agricultural chemical giant Copsi acquired the cow and, over 10 years, have genetically engineered a breed of cow to produce a pure cola (without any milk content).

(Here's their website, though, it doesn't appear to be working properly)

Holy Cow!

They've got two major-league fastballs to hit here.

One, taking on Coca Cola, Pepsi, and the gaggle of other second-tier cola drink-makers, is going to be formidable, to understate it .

And, secondly, they have to sell the concept of genetically-engineered cows, that produce cola, instead of milk.

Let's throw that one into a Heartland focus group.

Here's a video on this 'Cow Cola' and note how, in Part II, the farmer laments his cow producing cola, how "that is not right" and how the chemical company took the cow and now it only produces cola, and that he wants to change over and become a chicken farmer;

Cow Cola, the Camper & the Farmer



A commentor offers "Copsi are a big agricultural chemical company who have been dealing in GM for years. This is really frightening stuff."

And if this isn't making an impression on their chances of marketing this stuff successfully, somebody needs to get them a DVD, or video, of the 1985 movie, 'The Coca Cola Kid' (A nice little film, very funny, with a young Eric Roberts and young, as well as quite fetching, Greta Scacchi; Here's the trailer for it).



Maybe, along with producing cola, they can get the cow to push that rock up the hill.

Me thinks, if cows could produce cola, simply by feeding them coca-cola-saturated grass, Coke (or Pepsi) would have had this wrapped up decades ago.

Perhaps it would evolve, into a story today, of a rum-producing bovine.


Bonus Riffs

Retro Garlic ... “There’s a food Ponzi scheme going on’’

Strap On Your Tinfoil Chefs' Hats

M'm! M'm! Good!

Spam-A-Lot ...The Eating Kind!

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Spinach Industry Plans To Overcome E. Coli Setback




(Cross Posted at The Garlic)

Going wild

By AviShalom

What is a "wild" crop? One that is not cultivated, correct? That certainly is my understanding of the word, wild. As far as I know there is no labeling standard for the various products that are called "wild," and thus cultivated fruits can be in processed foods that are labeled wild.

Now, what if a beer is called Wild Hop Lager and bears the USDA seal that it is organic? As far as I know, there are no hops growing in the wild that are used by brewers anywhere, but you might assume that, even if the hops in this beer were cultivated, they at least would have been cultivated organically. Reasonable assumption, no? Uh, no. The hops in question are grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Of course, if you noticed that that Wild Hop Lager was produced by mega-factory brewer Anheuser Busch, you might be less surprised at the misleading labeling. The USDA has interpreted the Organic Foods Protection Act of 1990 as allowing various ingredients that constitute a stipulated maximum percentage of the total product to be produced non-organically without disqualifying the product itself from bearing the USDA organic seal. And that list is about to be expanded, and the percentage of allowable non-organic ingredients in a product is about to be increased (to 5%).

What a shame that the USDA is allowing such debasing of the value of the organic label that products can have significant non-organic ingredients. Certainly hops are a significant ingredient in beer, even if a little goes a long way. (Well, not for me, but then I am hophead. I could eat them raw and have been known to enjoy a cup of hop tea now and then.)

I remember some years ago when there were discussions among organic producers about the mixed blessing of the then-budding mass interest in organic products. Of course, those of us who grow and consume organic products want the concept to spread--for both our own interests and those of the planet. But we knew it was inevitable that government agencies would begin to relax standards at the behest of the big-time processors and retailers, who can hire better-connected lobbyists than the committed organic growers can. An article from earlier this month in the L.A. Times, from which the not-wild, not-organic hop lager story comes, suggest that this relaxation of standards is very much underway.

My own advice is not only to look for the "organic" label, but to favor relatively smaller producers who specialize in organic whenever possible. If it is local, even better.

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This is my first post at The Reaction, and I am grateful to Michael for inviting me to join his distinguished blogging team. This post also appears at my own blog, Fruits and Votes, which is (mostly) about what it says it is about, though it generally leans much more to the Votes end of things, as I am a political scientist who specializes in elections and electoral systems. I thought I would introduce myself here with one of my Fruits posts (or "plantings," as I like to say). I am also an organic grower myself. And I am posting here under my Hebrew name, though if you know F&V or visit it, you will easily see my real everyday "secular" identity. I have commented here frequently in the past as "MSS."