Peanut Butter and Orkney

The land that generated the minds behind much of the industrial revolution has big plans for their northern coast. Scottish Power...(www.scottishpower.com) has outlined a strategy for building the largest wave power plant in the world. They couldn't;t have picked a better place. Orkney is a tiny coal of in the midst of a churning, icy North Sea where waves outnumber residents by an insurmountable ratio. So while the Scots are busy bleeding light from darkness, America is in the throes of a violent salmonella scare. Industrial food manufacturers and consumers alike can take out their notebooks here. In an age where notions of quality and service in any sector are informed by assumptions made about the product and not necessarily by the truth, it is not surprising that this doesn't happen more often. This peanut butter scare is a prime example. It is assumed by the consumer that Peter Pan peanut butter is a wholesome variety of the popular spread. This assumption has been made not because it it actually is a wholesome variety, but because it got a green light from the FDA at some point in the past and has been manufactured up until this point with no ill effects passed on to the consumer. This assumption has led to a trail of sicknesses which has bred and will continue to breed lawsuit after lawsuit against the parent company of a product whose only intention was to provide a better butter. So while Con Agra must be held accountable to the production processes at their peanut butter plants, the American consumer must realize their own liberty in product choice. I recommend Teddy brand peanut butter. Much less corporate and a better flavor too. And for those of you who are wondering what all this has to do with the wave power off the Orkney Coast, we all might do well to take a lesson from Scottish Power and use the recourses at hand to improve the circumstance which, in this case, would be to buy peanuts in bulk and make your butter in the sanity of your own home.