Whosever child brought this to school last week and either gave it to my child to eat, or simply gave their trash to my child to bring home, I am sorry that this blog post may offend you. I plan to rip this apart to the full extent that I can make up material for. It really made my day, so for that, I thank you. I'm sure we are friends, and I really want to stay friends, but please let me make fun of you for a minute. I love you, OK?
Let's start with the name: YumEarth. I want to let you all down easy on this one, but I don't see how to. These "fruit" snacks don't come from the earth. Not these fruit snacks, nor the non-organic fruit snacks. The earth doesn't produce these, farmers don't grow these, these aren't on the food pyramid, these aren't mentioned in any nutritional books as being a real food. They are a processed food in its purest form. Ok, that didn't come out right. They are a processed food in its purest non-pure form. This my friends, is JUNK FOOD.
And yes, our kids cry over these and beg for these, and we pay good money for them. #firstworldproblems anyone?
Next issue. The fruits are smiling. Actually, the fruits are laughing. DYING LAUGHING. All the way to the bank in fact. Because of the media and all the internet research done by all of us, we are told that if you buy Non GMO, "Natural" (this is in quotes because this word is not regulated in any way by the FDA/USDA and therefore means nothing when you see it on packaging. Anyone can put this word on any item), USDA Organic, locally sourced, blah blah blah.... if you buy these products- my friends, your entire life will get better. WHAT? Please don't tell me that you sleep better at night knowing that your child is eating YumEarth fruit snacks instead of Betty Crocker Shark Bites. I won't believe it for one second. If your child is eating these, they are eating junk food. (And to set the record straight, my kids eat these. I try not to buy them at every shopping trip but the begging and pleading and tantrums start and because I'm a great parent, I let them have what they want. I know it isn't real food. I know its junk.) Back to the laughing fruits- they know it's junk too. And they found a way for you to buy fruit snacks at a higher price. This is marketing. This is branding. This is business people, that's all this is.
Last thing- I'm not going to get into the GMO argument in this post- that's for another time. I saw the 'Non-GMO' label on here and I had to laugh about it because, again, #firstworldproblems, but I want to challenge you....do you know what a GMO is? Do you really understand this issue? Or do you simply look for the label and buy it because someone told you they are bad and we need to stop buying products with GMO's in them. One step further....does that person/source you heard that from understand the issue and know what GMO's are? How are you sure? We've become way too accepting on who we get our information from. We are suddenly demanding that we will NOT BUY FRUIT SNACKS ANYMORE unless we can find the Non-GMO kind. Way to stand strong middle class America! (Too harsh? Ok, sorry.)
Stay tuned later for a blog post on GMO's. Can't wait for the fireworks after that one!
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