Food processors are very good at using words to make their products sound healthier than they really are. They know that people will pay more money for healthier products. For example, when a food processor says that a product is ‘naturally flavored’, they know that consumers will pay more for it because ‘naturally flavored’ sounds healthier than ‘artificially flavored.’
But – natural flavors are not natural. Both natural and artificial flavors are made in laboratories. So – what is the difference between them? Natural flavors come from natural sources; however, natural flavors often do not always come from the implied source. For example, ‘natural coconut extract’ does not come from coconuts. It is made from other plants, plants that smell like coconut after processing. Natural flavors often come from sources that you would never suspect. For example, ‘natural strawberry flavor’ is often made from castoreum, a yellowish secretion extracted from beaver urine. Beavers produce castoreum to scent-mark their territory. Yes, beaver urine is a ‘natural product’, but would people buy ‘naturally flavored strawberry ice cream’ if they knew that the ‘natural flavor’ was made from beaver urine? They aren’t required to put that on the label, and nobody does.
Is There Beaver Urine in Your Strawberry Ice Cream? Read the ingredients label. If the label lists ‘natural flavor’, you should be suspicious. Here is what it says on the ingredients label on Haagen Dazs strawberry ice cream: “Cream, skim milk, strawberries, cane sugar, egg yolks.” Notice that there’s no ‘natural flavor’ in it. Haagen Dazs isn’t the only brand of ice cream made from real strawberries.
Prior to 1906, food processors were not required to list ingredients on their product labels. Then Teddy Roosevelt got Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act. Within 2 years, half the sausage makers in the U.S. went out of business. When consumers found out what was really in their hot dogs, nobody would buy them.
What is Artificial Strawberry Flavor Made From? According to the answer I got from a company that makes artificial strawberry extract, it is made from “Ethyl methylphenylglycidate which is made by condensing acetophenone and the ethyl ester of monochloroacetic acid.” I have no idea what any of that means.
Is Castoreum Kosher? I was once at a commercial food show at Moscone Center in San Francisco. There was a booth there from ‘OU’, a kosher certifying organization. The men working in the booth all looked like Orthodox rabbis. I asked one of them if he knew what castoreum is and whether it is kosher. He said he did know what castoreum is and said: “You cannot make kosher food from something that came out of a beaver’s rear end.” I remember that he gave me a stern look as he said that.
What Do You Do With the Money? Every once in a while, I get an application from somebody who doesn’t understand the concept of rent. These people are invariably ‘trust fund babies’, people who were born with a lot of inherited wealth. They often grow up knowing few working class people aside from their household servants. They are often sadly unprepared to leave home and live in the real world. Now, not all people with great inherited wealth are like this. Some are. some aren’t.
Many years ago, I got an application for a house I owned in Oakland from a woman named Amanda. Amanda was an incoming student at U.C. Berkeley. She was intelligent, well dressed, pretty, and polite. After Amanda filled out a rental application form, I asked Amanda if she had any questions. She said: “Yes. I’ve never rented a house before.” Amanda told me that her family had a money manager, and that he “usually takes care of things like this.” Then she said: “Now, I want to be sure I understand this. If I rent this house, then I’ll have to give you $1,200 a month. Is that right?” I said: “Yes.” Amanda thought about that and then said: “And what do you do with the money?” I shrugged my shoulders and said: “I spend it.” Amanda smiled and said: “No, seriously. What do you do with the money?” I repeated: “I spend it.” The smile vanished from Amanda’s face when she realized that I was serious. It was replaced by a look of disbelief. She said: “You can’t do that!” At this point, I knew I was dealing with someone who had grown up with too much money. I had received applications from people like Amanda before, so I knew what to say. I said: “Amanda, paying rent isn’t like putting money into your bank account. When you give me a rent check, it becomes my money, and I can spend it any way I like.” Amanda wasn’t stupid, but nobody had explained Capitalism to her before. Amanda thought that paying rent was like putting money into a savings account – her savings account. She thought that when a tenant moves out of an apartment, the landlord returns all the rent he received. (I am sure that tenants everywhere would be very happy if rent actually worked that way, but of course, it doesn’t.) The next day, Amanda called me on the phone to tell me that she was withdrawing her rental application. I was expecting that, and I wasn’t sorry. Tenants like Amanda are always troublesome for landlords.
A few months later, I ran into Amanda at a bookstore in downtown Berkeley. We had a very nice conversation. Amanda told me that after she withdrew her application with me, she called her father and told him what happened. Her father assumed that Amanda understood the concept of rent, and when he realized that she didn’t, he decided that he better get involved in finding Amanda a place to live. So he came to Berkeley and purchased a house on Le Conte Avenue, 2 blocks from campus, for Amanda to live in. Amanda told me that she was now living in the house, rent-free until she graduates. Amanda said: “You know Mark, this is much nicer than renting!” Well, I couldn’t argue with that! I did wonder if Amanda was aware of the fact that not all of the parents of U.C. Berkeley students have the financial wherewithal to buy houses for their children. Amanda’s father paid over $500,000 for the house. Today, that house would probably sell for over $2 million, so he has done well for himself if he still owns it. Amanda was not unique. There are other Cal students who live in houses near campus that their parents bought for them to live in. There are realtors in Berkeley who specialize in selling houses to people like Amanda’s father.
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