Overprocessed nation

What do the iconic American lawn and Twinkie have in common?

Turf grass in its purest form, and in its native Irish climate and temperatures, was a soft velvety carpet of cool green to walk upon. Twinkie cakes were once upon a time made with things like cream and eggs.

Walk into any lawn and garden section and mostly there are shelves of chemical-contrived pesticides made to kill beetles, bugs, ants, mosquitoes and any and every invertebrate, spider or insect. No matter that 97 percent of them are harmless or beneficial.

At some point, chlorine, bleach, benzine, polysorbate, and ever more petroleum-based chemicals and polys, and ever more additive-laden junk would make America great— proud green lawns and pink-cheeked kids with lunch pails of Twinkies.

But the truth is, to keep our lawns going all summer, we chlorinate water, burn oil and gas machines and apply chemicals to kill this and that. In fact, “killing” is what the lawn and garden departments at Walmart and other stores are promoting.

In order to keep the kids going, nearly five teaspoons of sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, chlorinated-bleached flour and all kinds of wizardry and chemistry is applied to abracadabra produce a Twinkie that has some of its ingredients sourced from China or India.

But again, the truth is that emerald lawns and pink-cheeked children aren’t made in laboratories. What are we feeding the lawn and the kids? They will be healthier without the processing of their food and pollution caused in the environment by our great American lawns.

SUSAN PANG

Garfield