Resources / Ripples & Wipeouts

When I was little, on nights when my mom wasn’t home, my dad and I ate Kraft macaroni and cheese.  It comes from a blue box, has an unnaturally orange hue, tastes nothing like cheese, but is delightfully delicious.  Even today, I indulge in the occasional box of Kraft macaroni and cheese because it tastes like childhood.  However, when I do throw that blue box into my shopping basket, I feel a tinge of guilt because I know that whatever makes that orange elbow pasta taste so good cannot be good for my insides.  In my mind, Kraft products and healthy living do not go together.  So, I was surprised to read in last Tuesday’s New York Times that Kraft is in the process of developing foods aimed at promoting health and wellness in a rather unusual way.  Specifically, Kraft is developing food that will contain ingredients that can kill parasitic worms.

The proposed food product (Kraft has not yet determined exactly what that product will be) will contain pesticides derived from plant oils.  These pesticides “attach to three olfactory and central nervous system receptors found only in invertebrates” and produce a non-stop firing of impulses in the nervous systems of insects and worms, effectively killing them.  R. Douglas Armstrong, CEO of TyraTech, the company that discovered the potential use of the plant oils, will not reveal the specific types of plant oils that are being used.  However, he stressed that the plant oils are harmless to humans and other vertebrates, because vertebrates do not contain the same nervous system receptors as invertebrates.

Whatever food product is developed, it will be marketed in rural Asia, Africa and Latin America, where parasitic worms are most prevalent. According to the New York Times article, “parasitic worms infect at least 290 million people, a number that could be reduced by adequate sanitation that separates sewage from human contact.” Although on one hand, the proposed food product may become an effective short-term treatment for parasitic worms, it fails to address the much larger systemic problems of poor sanitation in areas most affected by parasitic worms.  Additionally, who knows whether down the road, the pesticides in this new product will turn out to be harmful?  Kraft has a long history of charitable giving.  Rather than develop a new food to treat the symptoms of parasites, Kraft should make access to safe food and water one of its top philanthropic priorities.  I learned in elementary school, every person has a fundamental right to water, food and shelter.  I assume that my teachers meant water and food that is parasite and pesticide free.

--AMI

Related pages:
“New Food Formula: Tastes Fine, Kills Worms”
Kraft Charitable Giving