Found a Peanut

In the these great United States of America, we are in the midst of a conundrum. Most people agree that we have "too much government." Unfortunately, American businesses have shown that they will not check themselves against greed and stupidity. If certain businesses were not greedy and stupid, they would not have asked the American taxpayer to bail them out of the messes they created.

Another example of stupidity is the Peanut Corporation of America, a factory in Georgia that makes peanut paste among other peanut butter products and which is in the midst of yet another massive salmonella outbreak which is linked to eight deaths and hundreds of poisonings across the US.

Obviously, it's causing no end of hysteria among peanut butter consumers. However, PCA does not produce all the peanut butter used in our nation's peanut butter-based products. This fact has done little to allay the concerns of our nation's peanut farmers, who feel that this latest outbreak is going to cripple their industry.

A father-and-son farming team in Burke County, Georgia, was interviewed by our local news channel, and expressed their concern about the overall price of their harvest. The rumor mill has reached them that the nationwide price of peanuts is going to drop nearly 30% per ton, all because of this one factory. The astute father had this to say about it: "Truth has nothing to do with perception."

I thought that that one statement was probably the most profound thing I'd ever heard. Granted, that was at about 5:30 am this morning, after a rough night's sleep dreaming of geriatric vampires trying to gum me to death. Again. Still, I think that statement is accurate for nearly every situation.

If it's all right with you, Mr Farmer, I'd like to borrow that phrase. It's one that needs repeating regularly.

newslink credit the the Los Angeles Times