Now what? You know that a certain percentage of these folks will never eat a tomato again, no matter how safe anyone claims they are. They will feel justified– their public denouncements fueled by subconscious misgivings at having consumed something that came unmolested from nature all these long years. I’m not sure a side of french fries, and a burger with onions, ketchup, pickles and a pasty bit of iceburg lettuce are really going to cut it as the requisite five servings of vegetables a day (eating them x3 won’t do it, either). If you ask me, five servings of vegetables is not even enough (the food pyramid needs a major overhaul, really). And don’t get me started on the “soda pop.”

I don’t want to start any rumors, but perhaps it’s the US beef & dairy industries attempting to distract us from the threat of Mad Cow, that “special sauce” of chemicals & hormones, out-of-control CO2 emissions, deforestation and bioengineering (Picture Daisy with few extra udders, or how about a nice cold glass of milk laced with spider proteins, mmmm?). Ah we know not what we do. Is it any wonder that Europe won’t take our beef or other frankenfoods?

You would think from my ranting that I would be a strict vegetarian (I was, in my passioniate & disgruntled youth). However, writing this has just made my older self hungry for a cheeseburger. Sigh.

Yeah, with extra tomatoes, spinach, and maybe some avocado, California style. And while I’m dreaming, I’ll have the Kobe beef, as rare as allowable by law (yes, the vegetarian days are officially over), at a sidewalk cafe, say, in Vancouver.