By Gene Ayres, Your Consumer Curmudgeon

Correction and update:

In my last dispatch I repeated my assertion that tap water was as good as, and actually safer than, bottled water. While this used to be true in most areas of the civilized world including the U.S., recent developments, as reported this past week by The New York Times, have revealed that this is no longer true. While bottled water does contain cancer-causing plastic contaminants, at least it isn’t the color of coal and loaded with arsenic, barium and lead like the water now coming out of taps in West Virginia, or laced with sewage and e-coli like the farm-runoff contaminated tap water turning up in Wisconsin and other agricultural regions. In fact, the Times has found that contaminated public water supplies exist now in every state of the union. So, much as I hate to do so I am forced to drink my words. Bottled water may actually not only be safer, but an absolute necessity if you or your water supplies are anywhere near large agribusinesses, including poultry, livestock, and any non-organic produce or grain growers. I would say this: read your labels carefully. Spring water might once have been the best choice, but even springs can risk contamination, since water pollution became virtually unregulated or enforced during the Bush era. Your other alternative would be an expensive water filtration system, such as reverse osmosis, which would be better and cheaper in the long run than bottled water in any case.

Meanwhile, for this week’s topic, as usual: corporate malfeasance, hypocrisy and deception remain in the forefront. The latest scam is the new so-called “Smart Choice” labeling program recently put into effect by the largest corporate food processors such as Kellogg, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, General Mills, ConAgra, and Kraft. Trying to further capitalize on the “green foods” movement, these folks have helpfully set out to relieve us weary and wary consumers of that tedious task of having to read food labels to sort out all those unpronounceable chemical additives, preservatives, and sugar and fat content in their food products. Mind you, the contents haven’t changed at all. Only the labeling. From now on, all these foods, formerly known as “junk foods,” will be relabeled as “Smart Choice” foods, with a nice handy green check mark on the front.

This, like so much else the corporate world is shoving down our throats, is right out of George Orwell, who wrote eloquently about what has come to pass since he published 1984 (how quaint that date seems now, and yet prescient, given who was president at the time). It’s called “doublespeak,” which politicians have now perfected to an art: saying the opposite of the truth so often it becomes the new truth. So now junk food is health food, with a green check mark called “Smart Choice” to prove it.

According to Dr. Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, "You could start out with some sawdust, add calcium or Vitamin A and meet the [Smart Choices] criteria." Dr. Jacobson had originally been invited to serve on the corporate panel that developed the so-called “standards” for this program, and was forced to resign when he objected to the fact that the rest of the panel consisted of corporate decision makers from the big agribusinesses. But fear not, fellow consumers. The good news is that, for those of you who tremble at the thought of change, there won’t be any. Fudgesickles and Froot Loops (yes, Froot Loops) will still contain all those goodies like caffeine, food dyes, preservatives like BHA, sugar, fat, artificial sweeteners (particularly saccharin, aspartame and acesulfume-K), and all that other stuff we love. The only change will be that from now on Frosted Flakes and Froot Loops are a “Smart Choice.” Which means they are officially good for you!

Sources: USDA, Jim Hightower, Wednesday 16 September 2009, Truthout Perspective, Center for Science in the Public Interest

Gene Ayres is a career writer, author and freelance journalist. His latest book is A Billion to One: An American Insider in the New China. He can be found at: www.geneayres.org.