Even if you haven't seen the classic "Les Raisins de la Mort," a late 1970s French flick based on the premise that pesticide use is turning vineyard workers into zombies, you might be excused for thinking twice about those shriveled little…rabbit pellet-like bits of chewiness. Like eating tiny heads of wizened old people. Here's what you knew in your heart: U.S. farmers use over fifty pesticides on table and raisin grapes, including particularly nasty herbicides such as Hydrogen cyanamide, 2,4-D dimethylamine salt, and so on. If you're exposed to this stuff in the field and lucky, you only get itchy skin, flu-like symptoms, shortness of breath…perhaps a tumor or two…and if you're not, you turn into a zombie. It's that simple. Pop one in your mouth, or even a handful, and you might as well be eating a chewy chunk of yummy pesticides. I recall some Karen Silkwood-like story about an investigative journalist in the 1970s, when I was just starting to learn the meaning of fear, who determined to expose the pesticide content in raisins; the California Raisin Board got him. Last I recall he was seen lurching off into the night, his face twisted into the horrible rictus typical of an excessive raisin-eater.
Dogs, by the way, not infrequently develop renal failure after heavy consumption of raisins or grapes. Right, precious few of you out there are dogs, and there's some argument to be made that the fewer fecal landmines on our streets the better (because of reduced dog population, thanks to raisins), but still: this Halloween I'm going dressed as a raisin.If you've gotta eat 'em (and actually, for all that excessive consumption will give you the runs, they're chock full of nutrition) be sure they're organic. (On the other hand, now that the FDA has redefined "organic" to mean "farming with industrial chemicals"--you'll have to wait for a future blog on that--if you don't grow your own, don't eat 'em.)
Love,
B.V.
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