May contain

You will, of course, find well-stocked produce sections in the chain grocery stores that sell pasteurized cider. But they sell far more of the over processed, high-sugar, high-sodium crap that we Americans find so lethally alluring. Not so at a country produce stand. Usually, it’s either the fresh stuff that’s in season or nothing. As the sign above Dayton’s cash register proudly proclaims, “We Grow What We Sell.” … Three miles from Dayton’s orchard there’s a big supermarket where we used to buy FDA-approved juice boxes for our children. One day, after reading the label, I decided that was no longer a good idea. What convinced me was this disclaimer: “This carton may contain apple juice from USA, Argentina, Chile, Germany, or Austria.” May contain? Not does contain, or will contain, but may contain. Had the lawyers who wrote this been injected with truth serum perhaps they’d have said something like this: “We, the rootless corporation that produced this product, have only the vaguest idea where your food came from. But if bad apples poison the juice we’re reasonably confident that we can narrow down our source to three of the world’s seven continents.”

Tom Springer
Looking for Hickories