Strawberries And The Poison Panic | TMT 178

Summary

Too Many Tabs with Pearlmania500

Episode 178: Strawberries and the Poison Panic

Release Date: May 24, 2026
Hosts: Pearlmania500 (A) & Mrs. P (B)
Theme: Are strawberries poison? The viral panic about chemicals in America’s favorite berry launches the hosts into a winding journey through food safety, regulatory capture, chemical history, online misinformation, and why you can’t trust anything—not even a strawberry.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the recent online controversy over whether strawberries are "poison," stemming from viral posts about pesticide contamination and international conspiracy theories. Pearlmania500 and Mrs. P investigate the sources, critique the role of agricultural monopolies and regulatory agencies, and unpack the broader context of chemical safety panics in the U.S. Along the way, they explore the history and influence of Monsanto, problems with both organic and conventional agriculture, the dirty reality of “forever chemicals,” and why so many Americans are primed to fear their food.

The conversation flies from social media hysteria to corporate greed, government policy, and the memorable personalities and legal cases behind these controversies. As always, the hosts blend sharp skepticism, historical context, and dark comedy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Strawberry Poison Panic: Origins & Viral Spread

• [00:52-05:00]
  • Mrs. P’s algorithm has been “freaking out” about strawberries, with a viral blog post claiming non-organic berries are “dripping in pesticides.”
  • The panic originated with a blog called Mamavation, whose study found higher (but legal) pesticide levels in conventional Driscoll’s strawberries than in organics.
  • Social media amplified these findings, creating an echo chamber of gardening parents and health bloggers—“a warzone happening online”.
  • Mrs. P: “Basically Mamavation did a study… they detected residue that appeared to fall within the legal limits set by the EPA. But of course, everyone just read the headline.” [04:01]

2. What Do the Tests Actually Show?

• [05:00-06:00]
  • The pesticide residue is within established EPA tolerances, which are supposedly safe.
  • However, skepticism about the EPA’s objectivity emerges due to political appointees and regulatory rollbacks.
  • Pearlmania500: “The EPA says the levels are safe. But who's in charge of the EPA?” [05:00]

3. Regulatory Capture: Who’s Protecting Whom?

• [06:01-11:26]
  • Deep dive into EPA leadership under Trump and subsequent administrations—none are food scientists.
  • Mrs. P describes EPA deputy David Fatou (Fatouhi?) and his background rolling back environmental regulations, legalizing asbestos, and fighting pollution cases on behalf of industry.
  • Mrs. P: “He wants there to be less restrictions and regulations around [chemicals].” [11:18]

4. International Standards, “Forever Chemicals,” & Strawberries

• [14:13-17:50]
  • Comparison between U.S. pesticide limits and stricter international ones—“We have less strict regulations than Russia!” [15:07]
  • Discusses PFAS (“forever chemicals”) showing up as strawberry residues banned in the EU, Taiwan, Chile, Korea, and Russia.
  • Explains the challenge of cross-comparing global safety data and the need for expert interpretation.
  • Mrs. P: “Experts note that detecting pesticide residue doesn’t necessarily mean a food poses a health risk…but critics say chronic exposure, especially PFAS, is worrisome.” [16:44]

5. Online Watchdogs: EWG, “Dirty Dozen,” & Industry Conflict

• [31:00-34:45]
  • Coverage of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), its controversial “Dirty Dozen” list (strawberries always high), and criticism for fearmongering.
  • They reveal EWG’s ties to the organic industry and critiques from toxicologists for not considering “the dose makes the poison.”
  • Discussion about how these narratives stoke consumer anxiety but rarely promote collective solutions.
  • Mrs. P: "EWG's website... they're using their website to fearmonger conventional products to drive consumers towards more expensive organic and donor-supported alternatives.” [41:05]

6. Monsanto: The Villain Origin Story

• [47:23-67:10]
  • History of Monsanto: Founded 1901, began with saccharine production (coal tar derivative!), became a chemical giant.
  • Their role in catastrophic pollution: PCB contamination of Black communities in Alabama, coverups, and settlements described in detail.
  • “Baptized in PCBs”: Segregation and poverty exacerbated chemical exposure.
    • Quote from Ellen Spears: “Segregation kept African Americans out of city pools…So they swam in polluted swimming holes. Poverty kept supermarkets away…so home gardens were exposed to contaminated dirt. Relying on small livestock and locally caught fish…ironically made them vulnerable to Monsanto’s pollution as well.” [55:00]

7. From Agent Orange to Roundup: Chemical Evolution

• [58:04-82:09]
  • Monsanto’s invention of Agent Orange for the U.S. military in Vietnam and its devastating legacy.
  • Transition to glyphosate (Roundup), the world's most successful weed killer, and invention of “Roundup Ready” genetically modified seeds designed to survive their own herbicide.
  • Farmers obliged to buy seeds and herbicide from Monsanto, forbidden to replant saved seeds—legal battles ensue (Bowman v. Monsanto). [74:12]
  • Pearlmania500: “This is setting up basically every farmer into a subscription service.” [78:31]

8. The Bayer Merger & Legal Fallout

• [84:13-87:19]
  • Bayer (of aspirin fame/infamy) acquires Monsanto in an “all-cash” $66 billion deal—called “one of the worst corporate mergers in history.”
  • Bayer inherits lawsuits over Roundup and old PCB contamination. Supreme Court weighs whether the company can be held liable for health effects.
  • Mrs. P: “The Supreme Court is discussing whether Bayer needs to be held liable for health side effects from Roundup or can have total immunity.” [86:57]

9. RFK Jr., Regulatory Collusion, & the Current Panic

• [87:24-91:34]
  • RFK Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary, blames glyphosate for America’s health woes, spurring Bayer to lobby for immunity and threaten to withdraw from the U.S. pesticide/phosphorus market.
  • Trump administration grants Bayer legal immunity and increases domestic production.
  • Mrs. P: “Instead of fighting for better regulation, [the anti-chemical panic crowd] sided with the devil because they couldn’t separate themselves from all the other and didn’t think it was a line in the sand. And they got us here.” [91:34]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Mrs. P (re: internet panic):
  “Basically, Mamavation did a study… and then somebody took that information. They probably just read the headline... and just started screaming that non-organic strawberries are dripping in pesticides.” [04:34]

• Pearlmania500 (on agency credibility):
  “We’re not food scientists either… This is a comedy podcast.” [05:37], [05:50]

• On EWG’s Dirty Dozen:
  “Spinach is number one… it’s always E. coli. It’s always salmonella… Cause sometimes it gets sprayed with fucking like, pig water.” – Mrs. P [32:19]

• On Driscoll’s as a “Berry Cartel”:
  “Driscoll’s controls roughly one third of the entire US Berry market… This is a berry cartel.” [21:35]

• Laugh-out-loud meta moment:
  “Should we just put Julia Roberts in the thumbnail?… Julia Roberts holding a strawberry. And it just says, is this poison?” – Pearlmania500 [85:15]

• On regulatory loopholes:
  “Driscoll’s states that they operate in compliance with federal, state, and local food safety laws. Yeah, but this is America. You can kind of buy those.” – Pearlmania500 [30:06]

• On the meaninglessness of watchdog lists:
  “The scientific community often points out that [EWG] ignores toxicology principles… dosing matters… labeling products toxic or harmful purely on the presence of an ingredient.” – Mrs. P [36:34]

• Monsanto: The Ultimate Villain:
  “Monsanto is the evil company from Fallout. They are Vault-Tec. They are Umbrella Corp.” – Pearlmania500 [76:40]

• Sharp social commentary:
  “There’s an issue with science in America: people get a little bit of information, and then they just run with it.” – Pearlmania500 [38:13]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Strawberry Panic Goes Viral – [00:52–06:00]
• Who Runs Food Safety? EPA & Industry Ties – [06:01–11:26]
• Pesticide Residue and International Standards – [14:13–17:50]
• EWG & The “Dirty Dozen” List – [31:00–36:45]
• Driscoll’s: The Berry Monopoly – [21:27–23:00]
• Monsanto’s Dark History: PCBs & Agent Orange – [47:23–67:10]
• Roundup, GMOs, and Seed Monopolies – [67:11–78:31]
• Bayer Merger & Lawsuits – [84:13–87:19]
• RFK Jr., Regulatory Games, and the Real Endgame – [87:24–91:34]

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Concluding Takeaways & Tone

The episode unravels the viral strawberry scare into a much broader indictment of how fear, misinformation, and collusion between industry and government undermine food safety. The real danger, the hosts suggest, isn’t the berry in your fridge, but a society addicted to easy panic and power consolidated in corporate monopolies, weak oversight, and internet noise.

The conversation is irreverent, humorous, at times intentionally conspiratorial, but the underlying message is one of skeptical inquiry:

“Am I eating poison?” – Pearlmania500 [91:54]
“Who knows?” – Mrs. P. [92:04]

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For New Listeners

‘Strawberries and the Poison Panic’ is classic Too Many Tabs: smart, sardonic, and obsessed with the darkly comic intersections between history, politics, and daily life. The episode is a must-listen if you care about what you eat, what you read online, or who’s really in charge of your strawberries.

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Listen for:

• Deep-dive, accessible explanations of complex food politics
• Pop culture and meme references (Julia Roberts, Fallout, John Wick, etc.)
• Meta-commentary about the difficulty of “doing your own research” in a sea of misinformation

Skip if:
You’re looking for straightforward reassurance that your strawberries are safe. The answer is far more complicated—and far more entertaining—than you think.

Transcript

[A]

I'm Kiana, and I leveled up my business with Shopify. Once I figured out that Shopify was a thing, I never turned back. I can create a site with my eyes closed. Shopify thinks ahead of us, you know, and it thinks about the customer more than anything. Every day I'm thinking about some other new business, but Shopify is doing it to me because it's so easy to use. It's like I can't stop. I'm addicted. Start your free [e-mail]

[B]

then.

[A]

Doug. There's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual, even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show.

[B]

Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date?

[A]

Oh, no. We help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me to a human, him to a bird.

[B]

Yeah, the bird looks out of your league.

[A]

Anyways, get a'@libertymutual.com or with your local agent. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Strawberries. Their favorite thing that you see at the opening of every produce section at the grocery store. But is this strawberry poison? Is this strawberry tied into an international conspiracy of chemical companies that are trying to destroy us all? Is Hugh Grant involved? Is it that Hugh Grant? Find out today on Too Many Times. Remember to smile. Welcome to Too Many Tabs, a podcast where a husband and wife duo sit next to each other at a table. And today we're gonna answer a question, a question that apparently is rapturing the entire Internet.

[B]

I think it's just my algorithm. And the question is, are strawberries poison?

[A]

Is that the reason why I have strawberries in front of me right here?

[B]

Yes. I decided to buy strawberries. As for the bit, okay, but then I. So this is a big thing of organic strawberries.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I was going to buy one big clamshell of regulars and one big clamshell of organics, but then the organics were $8.99, and I said, that's enough strawberries.

[A]

Okay? That's. This is a lot of strawberries. I have directly for the audio listeners, the regular.

[B]

This size of regular strawberries, 3.99. So that's a big difference.

[A]

This is a big thing of strawberries. Okay, so we have strawberries here, and you. The question. I never thought about whether or not strawberries would be poisonous.

[B]

They're not poisonous. Here's what's happening. My whole algorithm is freaking out about strawberries.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Because my algorithm is like a Venn diagram of Gardening content and toddler parenting. And basically toddlers and gardeners love strawberries. And there's like a war zone happening online because of some independent investigations that have come out about strawberries.

[A]

Okay. So about these types of little fruits that I'm about to put in my mouth.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Yeah.

[B]

Don't you into the microphone. This is not that kind of podcast.

[A]

Asmr.

[B]

No, nobody wants to hear you chewing into the microphone.

[A]

It was good. Juicy.

[B]

So here's what happened. This independent blog called Mamavation. I don't know.

[A]

Mamavation.

[B]

Yeah, I don't know how you're supposed to pronounce it. Mamavation. I'm deeply leery of this website.

[A]

I can't take it seriously.

[B]

Can't.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Their whole website is like promo code pop ups. Like you're looking for a recipe, you know, like, oh, there's like 100 pop ups.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Also, when I was like trying to scroll it kept showing me articles they had written about fluoride free toothpaste. And I said, I don't. I don't like what's going on this website.

[A]

Yeah. This feels very much. If you click deep enough, they're going to tell you you can regrow your teeth.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So basically mamavation did a study, their own study. They bought two boxes of Driscoll strawberries, which we have.

[A]

Okay. These are Driscolls organics.

[B]

Yeah, they're Drizzle's organics. One regular and one organic.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then for science, they sent them away to be tested. Okay, Right. And the regular ones, not the organics, came back dripping in pesticides. Oh, that's hyperbole. I'm being, I'm. Yeah, being facetious about it.

[A]

Don't picture an actual strawberry dripping in pesticides. She just means that it came back with higher levels.

[B]

Yeah. So than the organics, then they're getting.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

They detected residue that appeared to fall within the legal limits set by the epa. And the federal agencies questioned about these strawberries maintain that the residues were below the established limits that are considered safe for food.

[A]

Okay, okay.

[B]

But so like, this is the thing is like this mamavation blog posted on, I'm assuming Facebook. Right. And then somebody took that information. Facebook. They probably just read the headline. They probably didn't open it up and read the article.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And just started screaming that non organic strawberries are dripping and pesticides. And then because I started doing research about all this, I started getting like Instagram reels of AI people explaining how to clean the strawberries. Edit. But like, it was insane. And I was just like.

[A]

But how do you. How do you do. How do you clean the strawberries?

[B]

You can rinse them off with, like, a little bit of vinegar and water or baking soda and water, and it'll get some of the residue off, but.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

There's only so much you can do.

[A]

Really. Yeah.

[B]

Because they're grown in. They're grown in the backside, and it's

[A]

in the soil at this point. Yeah.

[B]

It's like the whole thing. Well, we're going to get in a roundup.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Because I just. I really started clicking on a lot of stuff. Specifically, I was like, okay, so if the EPA says that the levels of the pesticides are safe, who's in charge of the epa? Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The trouble is making these decisions.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know his name. Was his name Lee Zeldin?

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Yeah. Real bag of shit.

[B]

Fun fact. He is not, like a food scientist. You know, we're not food scientists either.

[A]

Yeah. We actually had an episode called We're Not Food Scientists. And I just want to state real fast, the two of us have degrees from community college that are. That had nothing to do with health science. Any of these things.

[B]

No.

[A]

We're just two people.

[B]

This is a comedy podcast.

[A]

It's a comedy podcast.

[B]

Podcast. Usually scientists.

[A]

Yeah, usually. Mostly it's about history, but we.

[B]

This is going to get into history.

[A]

Yes, there's going to be history.

[B]

Yes, of course. This is comedy history. Podcast.

[A]

All right, so let's get into the history.

[B]

So, okay. The epa, head of EPA is Lee Zeldin, who, I looked it up, went to law school.

[A]

Yeah. He's a lawyer.

[B]

He's not. He's a lawyer. He's not a food scientist either.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

He was put in position by Trump because Trump said he wanted to deregulate the epa.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's great.

[A]

The epa, by the way, stands for the Environmental Protection Agency.

[B]

Yeah. To protect the environment.

[A]

We're not even dealing with the FDA or HSH, which is RFK Jr. FDA, head of the FDA just quit. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because they forced him to legalize flavored vapes out of nowhere. He was like, what? That was his line. His line in the sand was like, no, I will not bring back flavored mango vapes. And Trump was like, but the teens

[B]

love them, and he needs the team.

[A]

He needs. I need the teen vote. I need it.

[B]

He needs the teen boy vote.

[A]

Yeah. Well, you know, there's an island. Okay. No.

[B]

So the thing is, I was looking in the. Lee Zeldin. I was Looking into the next guy down right below him, his deputy.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

His name is David Fatou.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

F o T o U h I Fatou high. I don't know. But he's a very interesting air quotes guy.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

He's an interesting guy. He, in 2017, during the first Donald Trump administration, left his law firm job to come work for the Trump administration. And he worked at a law firm called Gibson Dunn. And the Gibson Dunn binged in my brain.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because Gibson Dunn famously successfully represented the city of Grants Pass, Oregon in a major US Supreme Court case. Landmark 6, 3 decision ruled that cities could enforce bans on homeless people sleeping in public, overturning the previous president. They're great people.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Over at Gibson Dunn.

[A]

So the. The assistant. The deputy of the epa.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Worked for a law firm that banned homeless people.

[B]

Part in law firm.

[A]

Okay. He was a partner in a law firm that banned homeless people in Oregon.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And set a precedent from the Supreme Court.

[A]

A 6, 3 precedent.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We all know 6, 3. When we hear Supreme Court in 6, 3, we know we're about to live through a doozy.

[B]

6, 3. Is that.

[A]

No, that's not. No. That they do. 6, 7.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

If we pack the courts, we could get. Six, seven.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

We should. And we should back the courts. That's the thing. I'm anyway, very proud.

[B]

Joins the epa.

[A]

Wait, hold on real fast. We should make that a meme. What, pack the courts? Six, seven.

[B]

Yeah, I think it's. It's. If the old millennials of us start doing that, it will ruin it for the youth.

[A]

It's already been ruined. It's already been. I saw the Pope do it.

[B]

The Pope did it.

[A]

Yes. Some guy brought, like, kids to see the Pope, like, on, like a lineup. Yeah. And they're like, Pope. Six, seven. The Pope was like, okay, sure, whatever. Just fine.

[B]

So Dave so joins the epa and he big into helping the administration roll back climate and water regulations.

[A]

Of course he is.

[B]

He directed legal efforts to repeal the 2015 Clean Clean Water Rule and set forth a new rule. He called it the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which narrowed federal jurisdiction over waterways, reducing regulatory burdens on landowners and industries. Because that's. We gotta reduce the burden on industry.

[A]

Yeah. And the change in that is basically, if a boat can fit in it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then we gotta care about it. But if a boat doesn't fit in it, then that's a local problem.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's literally what he came down to in the idea of interstate commerce, which destroyed the Clean Water Act. Which is an act we needed because our rivers used to just catch on fire sometimes. Yeah, well, you guys ever seen a river burn? Because we did in America in the 70s, and we're going to see it again in the 2000 and 30s.

[B]

So Fatui, left, leaves the EPA in February of 2021.

[A]

What happened in February?

[B]

We got a new president.

[A]

Oh, fake president.

[B]

And then he goes back to the law firm. Oh, he goes back and done.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, you know, I'm just going to go back to being a partner at the Gibson Dunn.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Got to go do some good law. Practice some good law.

[A]

Good law.

[B]

But during his second tenor tenure at Gibson Dunn, he actually, working with the law firm, challenged the EPA's March 2024 ban on asbestos. He argued that the EPA failed to demonstrate that asbestos present presents an unreasonable risk of injury for the specific uses that were banned.

[A]

Wait, this guy is pro asbestos?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

He wants to put asbestos back in our school.

[B]

We also did an episode about asbestos.

[A]

We did do an episode about asbestos. But this guy is like, okay, so the deputy of the EPA is pro asbestos.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And asbestos contamination.

[B]

He also represented International Paper in relation to its use of pfas and represented a group of businesses in Washington state that sued the EPA over their restrictions on PCB contamination and water. Now, PCB will come up later.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But I just. I. So I needed to make sure that you knew that the deputy of the

[A]

EPA loves chemicals in our bodies.

[B]

PVAs, PFAs, and PCBs. He wants there to be less restrictions and regulations around those.

[A]

Okay, okay. And this is a guy who's working with Maha.

[B]

He.

[A]

Because I just. I just want to just remind everybody that. That this. We're in the situation we're in because a bunch of people who put crystals on their foreheads said that they were going to get rid of all the chemicals. Well, yeah, but then you brought back all the guys who love putting asbestos in schools and banning homeless people for existing. I'm just a little confused here.

[B]

This is about strawberries.

[A]

Yeah, I was going to visit. When did the strawberries come back?

[B]

So, also in January 2025, Fatui was nominated again by Donald Trump to be deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. During his confirmation hearing, Fatui acknowledged that the climate is changing and that burning fossil fuels is the cause. He emphasized China's significant role in this global greenhouse gas emissions.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So he's like, it's a problem, but it's because of China.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

So we don't have to change what we're doing here.

[A]

My favorite thing, actually, I don't think a lot of people have noticed this, though.

[B]

It's.

[A]

Is that the second Trump administration has admitted that climate change is real and it is manmade. And when they started admitting it, they did it at the same time. It said. And that's why we need to conquer Greenland.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because a lot of people are like, what's with this Greenland thing? And Trump himself, he's like, the ice caps are melting and there's more shipping lanes and there's more access to minerals up there so we can make more climate change. Yeah. Like there's this whole thing, like, they've given up on even claiming that climate change isn't happening. Yeah. They just also don't want to mitigate it at all. Because one of the big things is, like, the. One of the ways to slow climate change would be to invest in green energy. Solar, electric, but also windmills and batteries.

[B]

You sound like a real lib.

[A]

I know. And they've had all these different. All these different Trump administration people have been in Senate confirmations recently. And there was one, and he was sitting there, and he's like, well, okay, but why don't we invest more in solar and wind power? And the guy's like, if it's dark out and there's no wind, we won't have electricity. And they're like, it's called a battery. You store it, you fucking idiot.

[B]

Oh, my God.

[A]

Like, you can store energy. They just don't want to admit that is because they can't think of anything.

[B]

So anyway, back to strawberry.

[A]

Back to strawberries.

[B]

Basically, I was like, who's in charge of the epa?

[A]

Okay.

[B]

People in charge of telling us what's on these straw. Are you getting more strawberries?

[A]

I'm eating another.

[B]

Strawberries are very expensive. They're for the baby.

[A]

That's what. Though they aren't. They're a problem cropping the show. And if I don't eat it, we can't write it off on our taxes. And if we can't write it off on our taxes, then I have to give these guys money. And I don't want to do that because that ends up in a slush fund for January 6th. Guys, anything. Anybody think about that? Anybody think about that? 1.1 million for each January 6th, Guy. That's crazy.

[B]

The Mamavation report.

[A]

I forgot this.

[B]

Yeah, don't forget about Mamavation. The Mamavation report alleged that conventional strobes contain residues of 12 different pesticides and fungicides at levels prohibited if detected. Levels exceeded stricter standards of other countries. So basically they're like, they're not saying that they meet our standards, these strobes. They're saying this level has been banned by the eu, Taiwan, Chile, Korea and Russia. Eight of the pesticides are considered pfas, or forever chemicals, and are extremely persistent and highly toxic. Oh, how's that strawberry?

[A]

That hit me in the seed. Yeah, there's a lot of seeds in there. I'm going to get diverticulitis of the throat. So wait a second. We have less strict regulations than Russia.

[B]

I know. Isn't that crazy?

[A]

That caught me off guard.

[B]

Well, on certain chemicals, yes.

[A]

And, and this is the thing real fast. This is the thing that happens a lot when you start. You can't do a one to one comparison of American systems and other ones because things like we list things based on their chemical name.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Other places might list things based on like the quote, natural name. We also have different names for like the dyes and, and other things. So when we. They're not easy to search. And so you need to speak to food scientists who actually understands the difference in the regulations, you know, and this is where experts.

[B]

Me?

[A]

Yeah, you're not a food scientist. But this is where experts really do come in handy because you might be looking at. What did you say? Thailand or Taiwan?

[B]

Taiwan.

[A]

Taiwan, which we're going to give to China soon. But Taiwan, like you need to find somebody who has an understanding.

[B]

Going to give them Taiwan.

[A]

We're going to. Huh? What do you mean?

[B]

Taiwan's not ours to give away.

[A]

You don't know that.

[B]

Yes, I do.

[A]

No, you don't know that. It's a one China policy. And we went and we did it and it was crazy.

[B]

But they just said that they're blaming China for all the bad things.

[A]

Yeah, that's why we got to give them Taiwan so that we don't fight them.

[B]

What?

[A]

Because we'll fight Taiwan. It's like, listen, I don't have 70 years to give you on this one. It's a difficult thing. All you need to know is Taiwan. Anyway, what I'm saying though is you need to find an expert who actually understands Taiwanese food standards. Right. And American food standards. And then they can communicate because the AI won't be. I wouldn't be able to parse this. Doing some baseline search engines of do your own research aren't able to parse these in that way because there might be some tiny little layer of nuance that we aren't all picking up.

[B]

I can't Believe you would say that mamavations didn't do that.

[A]

I'm just saying mamavations, that didn't happen. On Facebook post, we should rub a

[B]

crystal on it with their fluoride free toothpaste. Experts note that detecting pesticide residue doesn't necessarily mean a food poses a health risk. EPA's tolerance levels are designed to remain well below amounts considered harmful based on current scientific evidence. Critics of existing regulations argue that cumulative exposure of multiple chemicals over long periods, particularly PFAs, is linked to compounds that can accumulate in the body. So they're saying that like, yeah, the regular strawberries might not have that much, but if you're eating strawberries and bananas and beans and lettuces and all these things every day, it's starting to build up in your system. Them.

[A]

God.

[B]

And the new broccoli laws. And then what I told you about this. The, they just passed a rule that you can use a very specific type of PFA on broccoli crops. And it's like, I guess chemically the same as non stick frying pan. Like the chemical that they put on there, they're gonna non stick the broccoli so that the bugs don't stick to it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

New pesticide rule. I don't know if that's actually at all true, but I remember reading it and I did click on the link and read it. I just don't remember what it said.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

I didn't write it in a Google Doc in front of me, but I said to myself, let me grow my own broccoli.

[A]

Yeah. And do you see, do you guys see how even people who like think about stuff you can still get you. Because the headlines goes by, it just goes, nonstick broccoli. That's what it. That's what it ended up in your brain. It just ended up as nonstick broccoli.

[B]

I was like, the Duponts are doing broccoli now?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

Yeah. Teflon broccoli. But the.

[B]

Did you know the Teflon that when you cook with it, you can't cook with it if you have birds in the house because it kills the birds.

[A]

Okay. This is about strawberries and I need to know if these are poisonous.

[B]

Why? You've already eaten enough.

[A]

Well, I don't know. They're pretty delicious.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We just finished a sold out show here in New York City and it was, the energy was amazing. Phil, it was great. You had a chat going. It got weird, it got fun, it got crazy. But we have more coming because we Go. We're going to be doing live shows in Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philly, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Paul, D.C. and Pittsburgh. Crashing out toward dot com. Get your tickets now or check the link in both of our bios. You know Mrs. P, I know you love this next sponsor. Yeah. So I want you to read this first line up here because you're going to say it right from the heart.

[B]

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[A]

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[B]

I love a sleep quiz.

[A]

Yes. It put you right back. It took you right back to all the great quizzes and then on top of that, you know what you got from your quiz?

[B]

A mattress.

[A]

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[B]

Now Driscoll's, who this says is the number one berry brand in America. Actually they're, they're the number one berry brand in the world.

[A]

Driscolls is.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. Which is crazy because they fought. They're the bad guys. One of the bad guys from red Dead Redemption 2.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yeah. It's like the, I think the, the O Driscolls gang, I think is what they are.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

But whenever I see Driscolls, whenever I go to the store, I buy the baby berries, I see Driscolls. I always think, I don't know why my brain changes it to o'dwyer.

[B]

Oh.

[A]

From an Adam Sandler movie. When they're like, oh, Dwyer rules. O'Dwyer rules.

[B]

I do not.

[A]

You don't know what I'm talking about.

[B]

You know, I do not watch Adam Sandler movies.

[A]

It's very apparent.

[B]

So Driscoll's controls roughly one third of the entire US Berry market. Okay.

[A]

This is a berry cartel.

[B]

Is a berry cartel.

[A]

This is a berry cartel.

[B]

They are. They sell more than a billion clamshells of berries annually across 48 countries.

[A]

Okay, real fast. When she's saying clamshells, she means this, the plastic container. Plastic container. They come in.

[B]

Yeah, that's called a clamshell.

[A]

That's called a clamshell because there is someone out there who's listening to this, and it's like picturing a. A conch from the ocean being pulled

[B]

up full of strawberries.

[A]

Yeah. A cornucopia.

[B]

Delightful.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. So they sell that, like a billion of those. This is the thing, though, that I found out. Driscolls and is actually a genetics and marketing company. They don't farm the land directly.

[A]

No.

[B]

It's like when I was looking up Driscoll strawberries. It's not like you're going to find a Driscoll's farm. They develop patented berry varieties, and then they're licensed to a network of hundreds of independent growers. So that's how they maintain this massive supply.

[A]

Yeah. And then the growers sell the growers that put it a Driscoll's label on the box.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then that's what ends up at the grocery store. And then the consumer goes, oh, Driscoll's the good people at Driscolls.

[B]

That's what people say. Nobody's ever said anything about Driscolls being controversial.

[A]

And we're not going to.

[B]

We absolutely are.

[A]

What are you talking. No, shut up. Their lawyers are watching. We're definitely not. And if anything we say from this point forward is definitely history. Comedy history. But that's full of opinions that we tell people to do their own research.

[B]

Scientology, Scientologists.

[A]

Yeah. She's just a mom. Right?

[B]

You shouldn't say people are just moms. You're gonna get a lot of bit.

[A]

Okay, okay, sure. A lot of bad comments, but how many bad legal precedents? All right. Lawyers are like, ah, it's just a mom. That's. I've seen. I've seen. Was it. What's the movie with Julia Roberts where she's Aaron Brockovich? Ah, she's just a mom.

[B]

Oh, yeah, she's just a mom.

[A]

She's the mom. She's the mom. And I got with. I love the numbers in that movie. Five, the number of my kids instead of whatever, you know what I mean, talking about. No, Mr. Third, don't put it in here because we'll get my demonetized.

[B]

You know that the, the lawyer in that he. His wife was on the Real Housewives and that when he just lost all that money because he stole money, the. That real housewife lady is like in shambles because of the divorce.

[A]

Wait, timeout. That sentence made no sense to me whatsoever.

[B]

So in the movie Eric and Baron Brockovich. In the movie Aaron Brockovich, Julia Roberts plays the. The law. The paralegal Aaron Brock. Yeah. That's working for like a curmudgeonly attorney.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That is going to represent all of the people that town that got poisoned by their wastewater because of the chemical plant nearby. Right?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

That attorney, you know, did get to keep some of that money, right?

[A]

Yeah. The attorney that, that actor is based off.

[B]

Yeah. The actual attorney. The actual real life story. Based on real life story.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay. So he went on to go and practice law for many years and then I do not know exactly what case it was because I, I don't didn't pull it up obviously. But he had done a case for a group of people who were victims of some type of crime. Now the rules are when somebody wins money, it has to be kept in like an escrow fund, a separate bank account that is then distributed after all the court stuff is done.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the attorney takes their portion, but they're not allowed to put it in their own personal bank account so that it doesn't commingle funds. Right. He in somewhere because I again, I'm not looking at the paperwork. He maybe co mingled funds. He did something funky with the money that was for the victims of this crime that he was defending and then allegedly stole it or something. And then because of that he got sued. But the whole time he has like this like wife that's like really rich. She hangs out with Jennifer Tilly on Real Housewives. She's like rich, fancy blonde lady and she's super, super wealthy because of him.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And then they get a divorce. And now all this stuff is coming about how a lot of her wealth, a lot of her Gucci clothes and diamonds are coming on the backs of these victims that he stole all this money from. And then she's on fucking Bravo network being like, no, I didn't know about this. I didn't know that that's where the money was coming from, blah, blah, blah. And so it's very messy.

[A]

Okay. And is Lisa fucking Rena involved, or is that a different episode?

[B]

No, a different season.

[A]

I just want to say.

[B]

Might be involved.

[A]

No, no, no. I just want. You.

[B]

You tell them what you want to tell them.

[A]

Okay. I shared an elevator with Lisa fucking Rena and her husband.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

When I went up to do the live show with Phil in New York, and I was just like, Harry Hamlin, by the way. Harry Hamlin. I was stuck. That's her husband. Yeah. I was just, like, in an elevator. It was a nightmare because the place we were at, they had an issue with the elevator. So every elevator took, like, 15 minutes. And then I'm just, like, standing in this elevator. I look and there's. That's Lisa Rena is in the elevator with me. I'm like, this is insane.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know if she was on the same one as Lisa Rena.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh. Erica Jane is the housewife, the real housewife of Beverly Hills. And Tom Girardi is the Los Angeles attorney. Oh. He got disbarred for this. He embezzled over $15 million from vulnerable clients, including burn victims, crash survivors, and families of the 2018 Lion Air Flight to fund his former wife's lavish entertainment career and lifestyle.

[A]

Wow. And then. And so. So Tom Giardi is the lawyer from Aaron Brockovich.

[B]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

[A]

Let's double check that.

[B]

Okay, ready? Tom Girardi, Aaron Brockovich case. Tom Girardi is the disgraced disbarred attorney and former co founder of the law firm. He inspired the 2000 film Aaron Brockovich. Well, yeah, my brain does work. Just a mom.

[A]

Well, listen, I was. I was iffy. There was a certain point in there, and you're like, I did all this different stuff. I'm like, all right, well, we're talking on lawyers, and you're going. You're flying off the handle with it. And this is supposed to be on Strawberries, babe. Yeah, Strawberries.

[B]

Oh, wait. Erica Jane and Lisa Rena maintain a strong, enduring friendship after starting together on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

[A]

And look at that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, we tab Zoo. Yeah, we tab that. Raw. That was raw.

[B]

Tabs. Logging tabs. We didn't have to really open stuff until we started to fact check ourselves.

[A]

We had to fact. You see how we fact checked ourselves a little bit?

[B]

Just a little.

[A]

Just a little.

[B]

Just a little.

[A]

Because the second she said lawyer and then started talking about his name, I Was like, correct that one.

[B]

Okay. So they. Driscolls is a genetics and marketing company.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

California, though, the state of California produces about 1.8 billion billion pounds of strawberries annually.

[A]

That's a lot of straw babies.

[B]

They actually grow 90% of all the strawberries in America for the American market. So if you're eating a Strawberry, there's a 90% chance it was grown in California. California. The state has used over 14 million pounds of pesticides with PFAS between 2018 and 2023. So you have to be clear, that's being like flown over crops.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Sprayed with water.

[A]

Yeah. Crop dusting.

[B]

Crop dusting.

[A]

I don't mean just walking through a restaurant.

[B]

That's when you fart and you walk through the restaurant.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You just keep it. Not everybody we know worked at restaurants.

[A]

Yeah. Also. But people have been. People have crop dusted rooms before. Enough people. I think enough people know what a crop dusting out your own butt means. And it comes from actual planes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That are spreading the dust is the. The spray dust. And then there's also the big. There's the big irrigation things where they'll spray it through. Through the water. There's a lot of different ways that they.

[B]

So all of those chemicals get into the water and the soil and they get into the runoff, stormwater runoff.

[A]

And then those go into reservoirs or into actual wells in people's homes or into other different layers of stuff. Which is why we should get rid of these things. Yeah, we should get rid of all the strawberry farms and we should just replace them with data centers, Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's what Kevin o' Leary wants.

[B]

I think that's a really good answer.

[A]

I think, honestly. Listen, my tummy wouldn't be hurting right now from eating seven strawberries. I know you've only seen me or heard me eat three. We've done a lot of takes on this episode today, everybody. So I'm currently. I'm currently deep in the strawberry game. Raw. Dogging them.

[B]

I washed them.

[A]

I washed them too.

[B]

Oh, they're double washed.

[A]

Yeah. Well, you said today's episode is called Our Strawberries Poison. Hey, babe, go grab that whole clamshell of strawberries. I said okay. Before I run them up the steps, let me give them a double rinse real fast.

[B]

Driscoll states that they operate in compliance with federal, state and local food safety laws.

[A]

Yeah, but this is America. This is America. You can kind of buy those. You can buy those. The president States did a settlement with himself where he made the government swear they would never investigate him or his children for tax fraud for the rest of time. That happened yesterday, babe.

[B]

That feels like that happened yesterday. Very like that. We need to investigate them for tax.

[A]

Yeah, there's literally. He literally was like, no, it's a one pager. Yeah. And so when they're like, guys, we're following. This is very much of the. Hey, yeah. Well, sure, it's unethical, but it's not illegal. Oh, it's not illegal.

[B]

So then I found this other group after I was, like, looking up Mamavation.

[A]

Yeah. I'm still can't get over.

[B]

I know. And then I found this other group called the Environmental Working Group.

[A]

Group. Okay. I. I can. Environmental Working Group. Yeah. Sounds. Is this. These are bad guys or good guys?

[B]

They're just like, mamavasion. Like, I don't.

[A]

God damn it. Because I was going to say at least they went for, like, a normal name.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You know, I mean, calling yourself the Environmental Working Group, I'm like, all right, whatever, you're lobbyists. But Mamavation, still.

[B]

The Environmental Working Group, I think, is a 413C nonprofit. Whatever. But they ranked strawberries among the produce items with the highest number of detectable pesticide residues, though they didn't name any specific brand to be.

[A]

But as you said, a third of all of them are address.

[B]

That's just math.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

The all the Environmental Working Group is also Red Flag af. I wrote that Red Flag af, because they came up, was called the Dirty Dozen. Do you know what this is?

[A]

No.

[B]

Okay. So every year for I don't know how many years now, like, while Maha was starting, this thing always bubbles up, like, once a year on, like, the Facebook and the Instagram, where people like, oh, it's this year's Dirty Dozen. And the Environmental Working Group actually trademarked that name, the Dirty Dozen.

[A]

They take, like, a movie name.

[B]

They. But no, in reference.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[B]

So every year, they test, like, 50 different types of produce, and then the top 12 fruits and vegetables that are the most contaminated with pesticides get titled the Dirty dozen. So the 2026 Dirty Dozen are. Spinach is number one. Which. Yes. Spinach is, like, the one vegetable that gets recalled, like, the most.

[A]

Yeah, it's always like, E. Coli.

[B]

It's always E. Coli. It's always salmonella stereo and salmonella.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the reason is. Is it spinach, especially baby spinach doesn't have, like, a really thick skin, so it absorbs quickly everything. And when it's like. It's like a. The leaf itself is, like, really wrinkly. So, like, if there's any germs or stuff in it, it's hard to wash them out. And a lot of people don't wash their lettuces. And then the other thing is, sometimes it gets sprayed with fucking like, pig water because it's like fertilizer. Fertilizer. Water that hasn't properly been composted. So there's like salmonella and E. Coli in on, like. There's a word for it when you come.

[A]

Maybe we should stop spraying our crops with pig.

[B]

You would think, but it's too much of an ass.

[A]

Well, you know, now that you say that about the wrinkly ness of the leaf, that would explain strawberries to a degree. Right. Because. Especially because of some of these I've picked up. They've had. They've had such sharp seeds.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That it's like if I was going to try to, like. If I truly was like, I'm going to quote, unquote, scrub this with like, I need a toothbrush.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

To, like, get underneath the seeds.

[B]

Did you know that strawberries are part of the rose genus? They're. They're, you know.

[A]

You know, I didn't know that you. In what world would I know that?

[B]

I don't know. You know lots of stuff.

[A]

Not about strawberries.

[B]

So. So anyway, cook your spinach, don't eat it raw. I found that out personally because I used to drink, like, spinach blueberry smoothies every morning. I got very sick, so now I only cook spinach. Number two was kale, collard greens, mustard greens, all for the same reason. Wrinkly, hard to clean. And number three of the dirty dozen, strawberries.

[A]

Strawberries.

[B]

This list is heavily criticized by agricultural and scientific experts. Studies have shown that the trace pesticide levels found on these fruits and vegetables are negligible and well within legal, safe, established regulatory limits.

[A]

Well, I'll be. I'll be the devil advocate on that. Just like what I said before, though, it's like these limits are set by lobbying and industry standards that are then codified into laws. And then we learn more things as time goes on. And so there's always with like, the science or anything with it. You should be looking into it. And we also have less regulation from looking at things like usda, FDA, and others. They have cut. Doge came in and cut so many safety levels.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And safety factors that are going to come back around again. There's the reason why, up until pretty recently, you could trust, like, oh, this meat isn't going to kill me, is because Back in the early 1900s, meat was literally killing people. And they had filler and all this other in there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it was poisoning and killing people and people would just eat something and die within a couple days. So we created usda, FDA and other organizations like that to go in and do random testing to then go, hey, your shop over here just murders people. So you're closed.

[B]

Yeah. And isn't that because of the jungle? The book?

[A]

The Jungle is part of that. Yeah. But there's, there's a few layers to this. And so it sucks because if I was to go back to, let's say the 90s or even the early 2000s, I go, yeah, sure, okay. Yeah, you're right. The EPA, we should probably listen to those guys and there should be some regulation around that and then maybe some long term committees to figure this out. But now when you're like the epa, I'm like, those fucking crooks.

[B]

I need to know that. Like I, when I was like trying to cross reference stuff, I was like, I'm not going to the.gov websites I don't trust because I got rid of

[A]

most of them too. On top of that. And like, and you open up, you're like, are strawberries bad for me? And then you open up, it's like, DEI is bad for you.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Woke berries were the issue.

[B]

Oh. Anyway. In the scientific community often point out that the environmental working Group often ignores foundational toxicology principles that the dose makes the poison. They're often criticized for labeling products toxic or harmful based purely on the presence of a ingredient, regardless of how minute the concentration is. And this is something I noticed on their website too, because you can go onto the environmental working group website and look up like sunscreens and hair. Hair stuff. So like they're like, oh, this has, I don't know, shea butter in it. And they, they could have decided from something they saw on something they looked up. That hasn't been agreed upon by scientists across the globe that shea butter is a toxic chemical.

[A]

This is.

[B]

And it's like, it's, there's this much of it in a chapstick. So they're like toxic, don't buy it.

[A]

Yeah. And do they say toxic or they say toxin? Oh, because I will say this is. If you use the word toxin at me, I immediately disqualify anything you have to say. Because toxin is like, that is, that's

[B]

the crunchy I'm trying to see on their website.

[A]

You gotta take a look. Oh, look at the pop ups. Yeah, pop UPS immediately hit.

[B]

You know your environment, protect your health. More pop up FDA finds intentionally added forever chemicals in 1700 personal care products. Give us your email, phone number and zip code to subscribe.

[A]

Nope.

[B]

So I can get more information.

[A]

Just trying to click through on different things.

[B]

But yeah, so look, they have like makeup, nails and so you can look up everything that you could just fear monger yourself to hell.

[A]

Yeah. But this is also one of those things. The same way people are afraid of soy. Right. There was a while there where especially on bodybuilder websites and on MMA websites, they'd be like, if you drink soy, it's going to turn into a woman. Because there's a type of estrogen thing in there. But it's not the type of estrogen that like the human body, it's a different type.

[B]

They're going to turn into a delicious meal.

[A]

But it's the same thing when then back when Covid first hit, there were people who point COVID 19 hit. There are people who pointed out that old Lysol that they had, it said on the bottle that it could kill Covid. Yeah. And they're like, oh my God, look, they knew Covid was going to be released before it ever happened.

[B]

It's like because we're on the 19th version.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's in the name.

[A]

It's in the name. Actually, I think it's the. I think the 19 might be for the year it was discovered.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

So, but I mean like, it's, there's, there's variants of that. Like we, we know most of the type of diseases. It's. Which variant do you have?

[B]

Just kidding. That was a joke.

[A]

I know. But it's called Hantavirus now. Or maybe Ebola. It doesn't matter. We is. RFK is on it. But what I'm saying though is with all of this, there is this issue that we have with science in general in America, which is people get a little bit of information.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then they stay run with it.

[B]

Yes. And that's what happened is that there's the Mama Nation. Mama. Mamavation.

[A]

I remember Mamavation.

[B]

They were like, we got a little bit of information about strawberries.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They put it out in the Internet and now everybody's freaking out.

[A]

Can I tell you what their thing actually proves? What if. If organic didn't have pesticides.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And the red quote, unquote, regular, normal, the cheaper ones does have pesticides on it. Then that proves that the organic doesn't have pesticides.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's what it proves. It doesn't prove that. It's proved that. It proves that you are paying extra to not have pesticides on it. Because there's been a long time where I'm like, oh, they just put a, they're just putting a sticker on there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And if that's what you're looking for, then buy the organics. That's what that sounds to me.

[B]

But that as someone with a garden that doesn't click through, as someone that gardens pesticides, you. I think about it a lot because like I've got what, six heads of cauliflower. Full time fucking job keeping the bugs off those six heads of cauliflower.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right. And then I picture a farm, acres of cauliflower. They can't do what I go and put on my little headlamp when it gets dark out and go pick off slugs like a crazy person. They got acres. So I'm like, of course they have to use chemical warfare against their bugs. Like it's, it's insane to think once you're like actually growing food and you see how much it takes to make sure that like different things aren't killing it. The funguses, the other diseases that can get transmitted from other. Like tomatoes can give pepper stuff and like cucumbers can give tomatoes. It's like a whole thing.

[A]

Real fast though, I want to say that doesn't mean that we're saying that the way it's currently being done is perfect. No, because I do want. No, I know, but I do want to get ahead of that because then I can already feel like three comments of people being like third hour over here for giving factory farming. No, we're talking about if the factory farming does exist.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So this is why it would, people would go in that direction logically. But it doesn't necessarily mean where I was gonna go.

[B]

No, I was gonna head down the path of everybody needs to grow victory gardens and community gardens.

[A]

There we go.

[B]

So we have access to fresher food closer to us.

[A]

That's true too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'll give you that's where I was gonna go. Yeah. Oh good, she didn't have the merch. You have the tie dye version of your merch on the soldier the soil.

[B]

Okay, so what was I saying? The. Oh, some of the other watchdog groups, like the scientific watchdog groups don't like the EWG's website either because they are like, they receive support from organic food industry.

[A]

So Big Organic.

[B]

Big Organic is funding the ewg. Allegedly. And so they're. They're using Their website to fear monger conventional products to drive consumers towards more expensive organic and donor supported alternatives. So they're like, you are being donated to by these organic food industries. Which is also funny because again, I did no research on this. This is just the thought I had is like, if Driscoll's organics is selling organic strawberries, do Driscoll's Organics donate to like secretly? Ewg. No, but then not because they also have the other consumer.

[A]

No. I think what it would be more would be that you get people who have either Driscoll's competitors.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or maybe even the. The organic farmers themselves, who then sell to Driscolls under the organic label. Because again, what we're talking about is to be part of Driscoll's, you'll have a quote, independent farm that is then selling a section of their product. It was like when we just found out about peach trees in California. Yeah, the 42,000 peach trees. Peach farms or whatever. 42,000 acres of peach farms. Orchard orchards destroyed. Yep, orchards that are being destroyed because. What's the name of the company?

[B]

Dole.

[A]

No, that starts with N. It starts

[B]

with an N. M.

[A]

Oh, no, Monty, we have it downstairs.

[B]

Okay, peaches.

[A]

All right, now we got to do it. See, this is where our brains are now.

[B]

Del Monte.

[A]

Del Monte. Del Monte is closing their canning factory in California. And most of these family farms have been selling. Selling to Del Monte, who then has been packaging the peaches the entire time. And with that one cannery going out of business, all of these family farms now don't have anyone to sell the peaches to. So the government is now paying them to destroy their peach farms so they can now reset and go find a different crop that they can then find a wholesaler to sell to.

[B]

Can I buy the peach orchard? I have this idea about truffle truffles.

[A]

About truffles on peaches.

[B]

No, you. Truffles come from the roots of trees and you need 10 years to create truffles so we can inoculate the roots of the peach trees and then maybe grow truffles and then become a huge truffle supply.

[A]

But what if you made peach truffles?

[B]

You mean I just cornered the market on a new type of peach truffle. Maybe a slightly sweet truffle.

[A]

Join our [e-mail] and let us know if you want to be an investor in the peach truffle farm. The thing I found out though is it takes four years for a peach orchard to come Online before it actually becomes like ripen.

[B]

Yeah, it takes forever.

[A]

It takes forever. But this is, this is what I mean. It's like with these systems, there's, it's a lot of people just look and go, oh, you just, you plant a seed and then food comes out of the dirt. It's not, it's very, very complicated. And this is where these issues come into. Of course, Mrs. B is like, I know it's complicated. Yeah, because you do. But again, you're doing a small garden out back that people can kind of fathom. The way our kid is watching YouTube channels about farms and like, old McDonald had a farm. I. Oh, okay. But now McDonald wouldn't have a lot

[B]

of farm propaganda to kids.

[A]

There's a lot of farm propaganda, but old McDonald necessarily wouldn't have. Most farms wouldn't have cows, chickens anymore.

[B]

No.

[A]

Sheep. No, they would have one. They would have one. And that's just the main thing. It's like this is the thing we do.

[B]

It's really bad for the environment.

[A]

It's bad for the environment.

[B]

Anyway, these bloggers are out here determining that our food is. Supply isn't safe because of the pesticide. Pesticides. And then basically they're just stirring up fear. They're not providing solutions. They're not providing all real alternatives.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Or they're not advocating for people to like call their Congress, Congressman or like do certain things. So then I'm like, there. How is there no government oversight on these things that I'm looking at? And then I opened a lot of tabs and this is where I ended up. Okay. Coca Cola. Rat tumors, Vietnam and old guys playing golf and getting Parkinson's disease.

[A]

And we'll get all those together right after this. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for

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3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] youm know, Mrs. P. Yes?

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Most men start losing testosterone around the age of 30. Huh. I know. I'm 42 and that's why I found Mars Men. Mars Men is here to help you fight back. Mars Men is designed to help unlock testosterone do you know it was locked up?

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[B]

Yeah. Monsanto. I ended up opening some tabs on Monsanto.

[A]

Oh, this is just Monsanto. Okay. Got it. Okay.

[B]

Monsanto. The name we all know is evil.

[A]

Yeah. It's crazy how fast that one got everywhere. Yeah. Monsanto was one of those ones, especially in the early 2000s, where you just. All you had to do was just say it. Be like, by the way, I think Monsanto is evil.

[B]

And everyone's like, yes, yes, it is. Monsanto was founded in 1901. Did you know they were that old?

[A]

No.

[B]

In St. Louis, Missouri.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

As a chemical company. The founder's name was John Francis Queenie.

[A]

John Francis Queenie?

[B]

Yeah. Queenie.

[A]

Queenie.

[B]

No. He worked in the pharmaceutical industry for like 30 years before he started Monsanto himself.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

The company's first products ever were saccharine.

[A]

Saccharine?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You mean like sweet and long? Yeah, that's what I.

[B]

Now, he didn't invent saccharine, but they were producing it. So they knew how to make the chemical.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so they started production of saccharine.

[A]

I will say I am a. I'm a saccharine guy.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I love. Give me a. Give me a saccharine in the ice.

[B]

He Wants an unsweetened ice tea, extra ice, with a little sweet and low on the side.

[A]

And I want to add saccharine to it. Yeah, that's just how I was raised. It's just. It's. It's. That's the flavor profile I like in 18. If you give me a stevia, you give me one of those yellow packets, you can go. You die. And those green packets, I don't even

[B]

know what the green ones are.

[A]

It's gross.

[B]

Stevia, maybe.

[A]

I hate it.

[B]

Okay. In 1879, Constantine Foulberg, a chemist working on coal tar derivatives in a laboratory at John Hopkins University, discovered saccharine. So saccharine is a coal tar derivative.

[A]

Good. I love it. I'm keeping West Virginia.

[B]

I like that. I just like that the whole rubber, like these strawberries, might be poisonous. Too many pesticides. So we're getting a chemical out of coal tar and making it sweeten our ice.

[A]

All right, all right. Don't yuck my yum. And I think it's yummy. Yeah. Can I tell you the thing is, I actually know about the coal tar stuff from an RFK Jr. Video screaming about coal tar. We gotta get rid of the coal tar. And I was like, no, you leave it in because it's clearly in your throat. You psycho, chomping on a Zen, telling me I can't have saccharine.

[B]

Monsanto was producing it because so many chemicals were coming from overseas at that time. And there was this issue that sometimes other countries would punish Americans with tariffs and taxes or that if wars broke out, it would be hard to get chemicals. Oh.

[A]

So tariffs and wars of choice got in the way of people having delicious iced tea.

[B]

Tea. So Queenie was like, I know we should start producing our chemicals in America so that we don't have to worry about that. That's why he started making the saccharine.

[A]

That is actually the argument for tariffs,

[B]

and that's, like, legit.

[A]

Like, that is the argument.

[B]

That's the argument Trump made.

[A]

No, I know, but it's also the argument that actually Bernie Sanders has made and others. The people there are like, tariffs are a complicated issue because there are ways where you look at them and you go, this. This is annoying. Businesses straight up hate them. Yeah, I don't like them. I don't like the way that this

[B]

last group, their biggest customer, Monsanto's biggest customer was Coca Cola for the saccharine. So we're making money.

[A]

We're making money, money, money, money, money, money.

[B]

And what do we do when we make A lot of money war. We invest it. And one of the ways they invested it, in 1935, they bought the Swan Chemical Company in Anniston, Alabama.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And they started producing a new chemical, and I'm going to pronounce it poorly called polychlorinated biphenyl. Yeah, that's it. Polychlorophenated biphenyl, which is pcb.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah. And this chemical is widely used in the creation of lubricants, ink, paint, and electrical equipment. Now, the area where this plant is located is predominantly African American and bore the brunt of what would be known as the pcb crisis. For 40 years, Monsanto systemically systematically discharged millions of pounds of toxic carcinogenic PCBs into open pit landfills and local creeks that flow directly into these segregated neighborhoods.

[A]

Yes. This is an issue that we're also currently seeing today. This is part of Red A history of redlining, which we talked about on an episode in the past. We've talked about redlining, but there's also seeing this happen today with the data centers and where they're building them. So Elon specifically put the X AI data center near poor black areas of Memphis. The targeting of low income areas and especially of minority neighborhoods is done because of things like gerrymandering and the redistricting that we're seeing. Those neighborhoods typically do not have representation that actually gives a shit or that it hasn't been bought off. And so it's more and more difficult for them to just call their congressperson, say, I don't fucking want this. Yeah. And that is just one of the things that has happened historically in this country.

[B]

Between 1929 and 1971, 27 tons of PCB were released into the atmosphere, 810 tons were flushed into the Snow Creek Canal, and 32,000 tons were deposited into open air landfill sites near the city center. PCPs were banned in the US in 1979 due to fears about their toxicity. But the damage to this town, Anniston, had already been done. Monsanto knew the chemicals were unsafe. They were doing their own testing on rats quietly. And these rats were getting huge tumors all over their bodies. But Monsanto had the scientists write up the fund the findings to say that the PCBs did cause tumors, but they. It couldn't prove that it caused cancer.

[A]

Oh, got it. It just makes growths in your body. Yeah, it just. It just makes your cells start randomly growing in different directions. But that's not cancer. Okay.

[B]

According to one survivor's testimony against Monsanto, she recalled that in 1970, company representatives had knocked on the family's door and asking to buy their hogs for $25 a head plus a pint of corn liquor. Unbeknownst to her and their neighbors, Monsanto was collecting nearby livestock to determine the extent of PCB contamination of the local environment and its inhabitants. The company's analysis showed that the chemicals were building up in the animals fat to levels at roughly 19,000 parts per million. At the time, the federal standard was advised to not consume fish with more than five parts per million. But the company kept the results under wraps, even though it clearly pointed to high PCB levels among the poor and working class families living near the plant.

[A]

And the thing is, with pigs in particular, when you're looking at them medically like this, that's a one to one transfer into the people. So the people in that town also had 19 per million.

[B]

And you brought up Aaron Brockovich. This is very. That, yes, is very, very that.

[A]

This is also. There's also a thing across the south as well. Because of deregulation, because of the history of Jim Crow, and because of the way these chemical companies have come in. There's so many, what are called super fund sites all throughout the South. Fund with a D. Fund with a D. Super fund sites. Because these companies, many of which their CEOs and their boards have long since died. They didn't care at the time what they were doing because they're like, well, somebody, the next CEO will have to deal with the cleanup if it ever gets caught or cared about.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they had to, they had to set aside funds to, quote, clean out and clean up these areas. And again, you have things like Katrina comes in and other hurricanes that have hit over the years, that spreads it even further. Breakdown of logistics and everything. It's just horrifying.

[B]

In a book about this topic called baptized in PCB's race, pollution and justice in an All American Town by Ellen Spears, she wrote about how segregation and poverty exacerbated industrial waste dumping and poor minority, minority neighborhoods. And in turn, the resulting pollution reinforced and worsened segregation and poverty. Quote, segregation had kept African Americans out of city pools, so they swam and polluted local swimming holes. Poverty kept supermarkets from locating in these neighborhoods, so home gardens were exposed to residents to the contaminated dirt. Relying on small livestock and locally caught fish promoted decades, which was promoted decades earlier as progressive reform ironically made them vulnerable to Monsanto's pollution as well. It was a circular fashion. Being home to polluting plant depressed neighborhood home values and repelled business development. Thereby increasing poverty.

[A]

Yeah. It would be like with the Flint water situation.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Very similar. Where if you're looking at one neighborhood over and everyone there is drinking bottled. Bottled Fiji water.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And everyone else is drinking from poisoned lead lines, you're gonna have a difference. It's also another thing, too, what we've talked about before when we've mentioned prosperity gospel.

[B]

Gospel.

[A]

There's a secondary thing that then ends up happening over time. With this. We have a whole community where you have people who are disabled, with tumors, a history of disease and sickness in their family. A prosperity gospel teaches you that that's your fault.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's not the fault of the chemical company that's maybe upstream from you. That's dumping everything into your.

[B]

No, you need to pray harder. That's why you're poor.

[A]

Yes. And that's. And this is.

[B]

The people that are rich are blessed. God likes them.

[A]

No.

[B]

Or the owner, the chemical company, is blessed to be rich because God likes him.

[A]

And his kids can do cocaine in Ibiza.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's what it gets. Because that's what always ends up happening. Yeah. Their kids always do cocaine. And Ipiza.

[B]

There was a settlement in February 2003.

[A]

That's a much longer time than after it got shut down. That was like 40 years.

[B]

Yeah. The resident. They had to fight forever. The residents of Anniston won a $700 million settlement after all the court cases, fees, attorneys. Bubba. It came out to like 9k per person and 2k per child.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the children were grown. You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is about strawberries. Okay. This is about strawberries. So Monsanto is diversifying and they're like, we got to get out of this PCB game because they're banning that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. And victory gardens are over. Nobody wants to be doing their own victory garden. Guys, we gotta get something out here that can help the farmers. We got a booming agricultural thing. The baby boomers are out. They don't want to do victory gardens anymore. We're gonna make weed killer.

[A]

Oh, for lawn care?

[B]

Yeah. Well, no. And for agricultural use.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Because on the big mass agricultural farming scale, they're the weed killers. They need to focus on.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

Not the at home gardener. Right. Well, not right away. And we're living in the future. When I'm. When I was researching this, this is like they're talking about, like, flying cars. They're like, we're going to invent weed killer. That's going to change agriculture. And we're going to fly in cars and I'm like, yeah, the future is extremely stupid.

[A]

Yeah. God damn it. Yeah. We didn't have flying cars. We have. We have drone warfare, though.

[B]

Oh, the dog. The robot dogs.

[A]

Robot dog legs. Robot dogs with a gun on them.

[B]

Yay.

[A]

Yay. Oh, no. My.

[B]

Give a fuck if my strawberries organic or not? Yeah, the dogs have robot guns.

[A]

Oh, no. I drove my leased car too close to a data center, and I got shot at by a robot dog with a gun on its back.

[B]

The president that was delivered up with a. With a. Like, a hot alien. I don't know what's going on, though.

[A]

The one that got me was when the president posted an image of himself as a member of his. Members of his cabinet and a random lady with big boobs.

[B]

Who was she?

[A]

Nobody knows, but she's floating in the water of the Washington Memorial reflecting pool. It's like them. They put a woman with big boobs in there because it was gay until then. Oh, yeah, because it was just the president and Marco Rubio and Doug Burgum.

[B]

Well, we know who that is. No.

[A]

Secretary of the Interior.

[B]

I know who Rubio is. He's the one that went to that phone party.

[A]

Allegedly. What happens in Miami stays in your butthole.

[B]

Are you talking about when people get butt shots?

[A]

No.

[B]

Oh, oh, he got.

[A]

Well, listen. Allegedly, he got shot in the butt. Miami foam party. We should call him. All right, from here on out, everyone, everyone, whenever Marco Rubio is mentioned, you should say, Marco. Miami foam party. Rubio. Yeah, just throw Miami foam party in there and just. Just sprinkle it. This is what we're doing for moh. We're just sprinkling it. You don't have to say Miami. You just say foam party.

[B]

Foam party.

[A]

Foam party. Rubio.

[B]

You mean Marco, the guy at the foam party? Rubio.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So they start making super extreme weed killer.

[A]

Who? Shoes.

[B]

Monsanto.

[A]

Super extreme. We could round up.

[B]

No. So they start. They make this, like, super extreme wind killer. So, like, we just got to kill all the weeds so that we can grow all these crops really quick. And the thing is, is that it's such an intense weed killer, it actually kills every fucking planet. Touches. It causes extreme damage to humans as well. They're like, oh, these. These people that are doing these. We're testing this on. Are getting really.

[A]

What are they making? Zyklon B. What the fuck? Okay.

[B]

The farmers are, like, basically dropping dead, and they're like, I hope nobody notices. Anyway, at the same time, Monsanto is working closely with the US Government.

[A]

I love. Hold on, I just love that this. Anyone who's ever played Fallout or Portal or any of these video games, like, these are. Monsanto is the, like, comically evil company.

[B]

You want to know? You want to know?

[A]

Accidentally, they're like, hey, guys, we made a weed killer. It also kills the farmer. It's crazy. Hey, it does. Listen, we told the robot to make something that kills every weed, and then it said, humans are weeds. Like, what are we doing?

[B]

AI Future. I know a video game. Oregon Trail. Oh, and did you know that on the real Oregon Trail, that that's how the strawberries got from Europe? They were on the Oregon Trail. They were traveled on bales of hay and straw, and then they got to Oregon, and that's. Or that's why Oregon has a huge strawberry.

[A]

Strawberries.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

I did not. I never put those two together. So they had them in the bale,

[B]

and then Oregon has, like, their very own specific type of strawberry that they grow there. That's, like, one of the most delicious strawberries.

[A]

Probably racist.

[B]

It's. Well, okay. Their strawberries aren't racist. They're delicious.

[A]

No, no. Oregon, though. Oregon was founded as a. I, like, I went to Oregon.

[B]

I know.

[A]

And actually doing a show in Portland.

[B]

The Oregon Trail ended their bummer.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

But then the people in Oregon got a hold of strawberries, and they're really kicking it with strawberries.

[A]

Yeah, I'm gonna be doing a show in Portland. Crashing out tour.com. i got a lot of other different dates in there, too.

[B]

All right, so Monsanto is also working closely with the. The government, like I said, because the government's like, hey, we got to watch out for health and safety. And then, you know, it's like the lobbying, like, they're always around. They're. They're. They're paying money to certain people, blah, blah. And then some government agencies come to them, and they're like, hey, listen, we're having this issue. The Vietnamese are hiding in the jungle, and we just can't get to them. Do you have any herbicide or plant killer that could just, like, cover a jungle and kill every plant so that we can see their fighters and have ground attack ability? And Monsanto is like, say no more, fam. We got you. We got this new cool stuff called Agent Orange we haven't been using, but we think this could be the perfect, and I quote, tactical herbicide.

[A]

Tactical herbicide.

[B]

Tactical herbicide.

[A]

You know, as a older dad, they put tactical on everything.

[B]

Yo. They put a tactical little butt wipes for y'. All.

[A]

Yeah, they Literally was. I've seen tactical butt wipes. I've also seen a tactical diaper bags. Yeah, they love to say tactical. For the guy who never signed up for the military. That's usually what it's for. Military costumes.

[B]

Those guys just join ICE now.

[A]

Yeah, now those guys. Those guys are ICE now. Yeah, the tactical herbicide, though.

[B]

Tactical herbicide is crazy. Hate it so much.

[A]

Also, I love that they're like, hey, maybe we could just, I don't know, do diplomacy with the Vietnamese now. How about instead we melt a forest from the sky?

[B]

The US military sprayed Asia orange during the Vietnam War and it's linked to numerous cancers, diabetes and birth defects. It was heavily sprayed in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and also was used and stored in a Korean demilitarized zone and a bunch of Thai military bases. And it also caused issues there. Yeah, it causes bladder cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer, lung and respiratory cancer, and soft tissue sarcomas and more and on and on and on.

[A]

And that does that to not only who you're using it against, but also the people who are using it. So the American soldiers would get it, the Viet Cong would get it, the

[B]

Vietnamese would get it means people, the

[A]

people who are around people, around people who are downstream from it just flowed people downwind from it that it just

[B]

came near Vietnam said Vietnam got. Their government has said that up to 4 million people in Vietnam were exposed to agent Orange. And the Vietnamese Red Cross estimates that that number is closer or no, that they said that 1 million people were disabled and have health problems as a result of exposure to agent or Agent Orange. And the US Government has described these figures as unreliable.

[A]

Wow, the US Government lying about casualty statistics.

[B]

US they don't still do that. Taking responsibility. Huh?

[A]

Huh? Well, at least Donald Trump had nothing to do with this because he had bone spurs at the time.

[B]

Over 7 million acres of tropical forests were destroyed. Vietnamese people have come together and tried to file suit against the government, against Monsanto, and they've been successful in America, unsuccessful in American courts because every time they file a lawsuit, it gets argued that we can't accept lawsuits from non citizens and you don't have enough proof and blah, blah, blah, blah.

[A]

Yeah, there's a few things that there's been quite a few times where this has happened, where people have brought suits from overseas and then they've done a bunch of bullshit about it.

[B]

Yeah, there are still people being born today, by the way, in Vietnam that are still having birth defects and cancer and things because it actually stays in the human body so long and it's also stayed in the soil. It's stayed in the plants. It stayed in the waterways. So they're still experiencing the side effects of the Vietnam War and Agent Orange juice. And we and so are American soldiers, like the American soldiers that were over there are still fighting with our veteran services to get care for the issues that they came up against with their health for being exposed to that as well.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Monsanto is like, hey, we can't use Agent Orange anymore. But they still want to create a weed killer. I they just, they are not pivoting away from this.

[A]

They just love Monsanto sees green. Yeah. In killing green.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So they make a weed killer that's very strong, but not as strong. Right. But it can crush the competition. The weed competition. Okay. And that is gonna be Roundup.

[A]

Oh and we'll find out more about that right after this.

[B]

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[B]

I don't think they're poisonous. They're the Organic ones.

[A]

No, it doesn't matter if they're. Again, I just. I don't think I'm supposed to eat this many strawberries. Yeah, don't.

[B]

Don't do it again.

[A]

You know what it is? The small ones have more taste.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

When the strawberries get too big, they're basically just apples.

[B]

Yeah. They don't taste that like anything, really. Another good one. So you know why they don't? Here, I'll tell you something. The reason that a lot of strawberries don't have as much flavor as they used to is. Or that, like, you remember the flavor of strawberry is. So when strawberries like this are picked, they're picked at 75% ripeness. So they're picked while they're still sort of green and white. And then as they travel, the gases in the clamshell actually ripen them. So they're. They're not fully ripe when they get to the grocery store.

[A]

Got it.

[B]

And so they never actually make the right amount of sugar content and flavor that. That we would associate with a strawberry. That's why when you go to the farmer's market or if you grow them in your garden, that's why you eat them ripe. You've let them become red in the sun and outside, then they taste really, really sweet and good because they've had time to have that sugar.

[A]

Oh. And that's also the reason why, like, when you go to some towns, they always have, like, the strawberry festival. But it's.

[B]

It's also like, Oregon has a great strawberry festival.

[A]

Yeah. But one of the things, though, is with. With fruits like these.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is we've also gotten very used to. In America especially, and because of globalization, we've gotten very used to being able to get any fruit year round.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that didn't used to be the case.

[B]

No. Used to get strawberries once a year.

[A]

Yeah. At Strawberry Straw.

[B]

That's why there was a strawberry festival.

[A]

That's what I mean.

[B]

But I mean, there's a garlic festival, a mushroom, an apple festival, like pickle.

[A]

But now, like, a lot of different stuff is grown, especially in the tropics, where they can grow year round and then they can transport it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it's. It's. There's a difficultness in all of that.

[B]

Well, talking about that, maybe this is my opinion, we're probably gonna get used to the idea of, like, more seasonal fruits, because with the straight of hormuze, we're not gonna be a shippy. Shippy.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I also Think that we're on that verge of.

[B]

No, no, no, no, no to that. Bummer. We're already in a kind of weird bummer space.

[A]

That's true. Tell me more about Agent Orange. Oh, don't. Hey, man, stop. Stop bumming everybody out about what's gonna happen in the future. Here's what happened in the past to the Mrs. P story.

[B]

Monsanto develops and patents a chemical called glycephate.

[A]

Glycephate.

[B]

Glycephate. It kills weeds. It's super exciting. They re. They name it Roundup. Now, Roundup is super effective, and it kills all the weeds. But here's the thing. It can also kill your crops because, again, it's just too fucking powerful. Yeah. And so if you're not super specific about where you spray it. Like, if you're like. If your neighbor's using Roundup on their walkway and they're, like, just spraying it around their walkway to get the dandelions and the weeds, they're. They're trying to keep it in a small area so it doesn't hit their lawn. Most likely, they don't want to kill their lawn because they acknowledge it'll kill their lawn, and they like the lawn. It's like the difference between eating tuna fish and dolphin. In my mind. You're like, you're willing to eat fish. Just eat fish. You want to kill. Lawn kill.

[A]

Okay. I mean, let me push back a little bit on this, because you're specifically talking about me and the sidewalk. Because certain weeds and dandelions will come up through the sidewalk, and if you. Even if you try to pull them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It doesn't actually kill them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That you end up just having to keep pulling this over and over and over again, and then slowly, over time, you end up. It just creates an issue and breaks down the sidewalk or the walkway.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So Roundup or any type of pesticide or weed killer like that will.

[B]

Tactical herbicide.

[A]

A tactical herbicide.

[B]

A full tactical vest. If you ever go see Spray Roundup, which we would not do.

[A]

Okay, well, we have, so.

[B]

Yeah, we have not.

[A]

Yes, we have.

[B]

I haven't.

[A]

You haven't.

[B]

I'm saying it's not a we.

[A]

Okay. We in this household, though.

[B]

No.

[A]

It's our mortgage. And I went outside, and I made sure that the sidewalk out there didn't have a giant root coming out of it that was slowly splitting it and creating a new tectonic plate. So I went out there and I squirted it, but that was it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm done.

[B]

So it kills the weeds. But it's, it's actually so effective, it's very effective that it's going to kill the. Some of the crops. Crops too, because again, the farmers are spraying from planes.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or they're using the big.

[A]

The big. The industrial sprayers.

[B]

Not yet. Like the big ones that are on the tractor.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Monsanto has a problem.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

They don't want people to stop buying the Roundup. They want to use it for the crops. And they're evil scientists, in my opinion. They're evil science.

[A]

I think. I think that's everyone's opinion.

[B]

But okay, so they're evil scientists and they're like, what could the solution be to our Roundup problem? And what they decide on is they need stronger plants that can survive the Roundup. Right. So then their scientists start to genetically modify seeds for crops so that the plants themselves could survive huge sprays of Roundup. And those are called Roundup ready crops.

[A]

Okay, I've heard about these. Yeah, I've heard about these. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

So we're assuming that's super healthy to eat. Right? Like we're just going to. Yep, I'm sure. I'm sure that's safe. So now at this point, Monsanto is selling the farmer seeds and they're selling the herbicide. And this is called corporate consolidation.

[A]

Yes. Because they're controlling the entirety of the supply line now. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And they establish at this point point one of the world's largest agricultural monopoly monopolies, these seeds. Each seed is protected by strict patents and farmers are required to sign licensing agreements and prohibited. Prohibited from saving and replanting seeds from harvest.

[A]

Yeah. This was a big deal. There was even like a lawsuit at one point where someone's farm over because of wind. Like the seeds from the crop. Yeah. The corn got like mixed in with theirs. Well, you're stealing our corn then.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And like what. And like the way the licensing on it was so wild.

[B]

Yeah. You could get sued.

[A]

Yeah. And then weren't they also, like, doing genetic modification too, so it couldn't even create its own seeds at one point?

[B]

So that is the thing where, like, there are some crops, like let's say you go to the grocery store and you buy Roundup ready tomato. Right. And then you're like, oh, this tomato is delicious. I'm going to pull the seeds out and then I'm going to plant tomato. Those tomato seeds in my garden. Those seeds might not actually grow because it could have been genetically modified to not grow. Right. So they have that ability within Their modifications to make it so that the seeds won't go. Or crazily enough, there are some seeds that will grow to be different things. So, like, I think it's red peppers or cucumbers. Like, they mix their genetic makeup so much that, like, if you bought. Like, this is just off the top of the dome. Like, if you buy a red pepper that's like, roundup ready or one of these GMO ones, and then you try to grow the red pepper seed and, like, a cucumber will come out or a melon, because, like, there are certain things that are within the same family. So, like, a cucumber could produce a melon because they've been genetically spliced back.

[A]

Yeah. The way how. Everything is actually Brussels sprouts. Yeah, the. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, the.

[B]

Everything is cabbage.

[A]

Cabbage. That's one big. Brussels sprouts are a cabbage.

[B]

Yeah. And so is broccoli.

[A]

Yes. The. The. The thing is, I do also want to point out, though, is we're also not against GMOs.

[B]

No.

[A]

But this is one of the reasons why there was so much anti GMO stuff out there. And part of it is because, again, Monsanto is the evil company from Fallout. Like, they are Vault Tec. They are Umbrella core. There's, like, so many movies. I know you don't know any of these things, but these. There are so many, like, movies I'm

[B]

not allowed to watch Fallout, by the way, to be clear. I'm not avoiding it. I was told I wasn't allowed to watch it.

[A]

Yeah. Because I didn't want you to be like, oh, that's gross. And be like, it's part of the plot. There's certain things.

[B]

I'm not allowed to watch the boys either.

[A]

Yes. For the same reason. It's gross. But I'm like, it's part of the plot. It's fine.

[B]

I like that I'm making you out to be, like, this misogynist that doesn't let his wife do.

[A]

No, I just. I'm just sitting there because I don't feel like having to explain why something is happening on the screen. Actually, the only movie that you. It's not because of the content. It's just because I've sat with you through enough stuff where you can look up and go, well, that's stupid. I'm like, well, then we'll watch it. So we just don't. Yeah. But there's only one thing I've ever actually prohibited her completely from seeing, and that was John wick.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Mrs. P was not allowed. I told out straight up. I was like, you're not allowed to watch John Wick. Yeah. Because they murder a dog at the beginning.

[B]

Yeah, I don't need that.

[A]

And the dog looked exactly like our dog at the time.

[B]

I don't need that.

[A]

And I was like, you've been through enough.

[B]

And so we're not going on.

[A]

Even though Keanu Reeves then goes out and kills a lot of.

[B]

I like that part.

[A]

I know, but I'm like, revenge. But it was very much like up in that. You have to go. You have to go to a very dark place to then rise out of it.

[B]

Watching up.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So also, seed saving is incredibly important. So like the fact that they're not letting farmers save seeds is nuts. This led to highly publicized legal battles, most notably the landmark 2013 Supreme Court case, Bowman vs. Monsanto, where the court unanimously ruled that farmers infringe patents by reproducing patented seeds without permission. So the Supreme Court ruled against the farmers and for Monsanto.

[A]

Yep. Supreme Court's evil. Yeah, that's. That's my takeaway from all that. Also, this is setting up basically. And it has it set up every farmer into a subscription service.

[B]

Yes. And then they also have a subscription service to repair their John Deere's and everything because of.

[A]

Right to repair.

[B]

Exactly. So between 1998 and 2017, Monsanto spent over $116 million on direct lobbying efforts. At its peak, the company frequently spent between 4 million and 6 million annually supporting federal issues, including advocating for biotech policies, pesticide regulation, and opposing GMO food labeling requirements. I was like, monsanto, Monsanto, Monsanto. Now the. Let's see here. In 2015, WHO, the World Health Organization

[A]

in USA. We hate them. They made us wear masks. Right. That's what we're supposed to do. We're not part of that anymore. America is free of the who.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Knock, knock. Who's there? Not the World Health Organization.

[B]

In America, they classified glycophate as a probable human carcinogen. This has led to tens of thousands of lawsuits from farmers and consumers alleging that the weed killer causes non Hodgkin skin lymphoma. Which is very difficult for me to say.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

A man named Alan Shelton, a 34 year old man suffering from NHL, alleged that repeated use of Monsanto's Roundup herbicides caused his disease, sued Monsanto and called Hugh Grant to testify.

[A]

Hugh Grant, the actor?

[B]

No, Hugh Grant is the name of the former CEO of Monsanto.

[A]

Okay. I feel like he's. That's not Allowed. That's allowed me Scottish.

[B]

Which is crazy.

[A]

He's Scottish.

[B]

He's Scottish.

[A]

Scottish. Hugh Grant.

[B]

Former Monsanto Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant spent several hours on the witness stand testifying in front of a jury at the Roundup trial, telling the court repeatedly that global regulators had found no evidence that the company's herbicide caused cancer.

[A]

There's no, there's nothing, laddie, that says that Roundup is evil. We just want to kill everything it touches except for the things that we own.

[B]

Also, we have been sending millions to lobby the specific government entities we're talking about.

[A]

Yeah, it's fine. We all go to the same country club.

[B]

Fun. You should not be at the country club.

[A]

Why?

[B]

Because they are spraying Roundup all over those golf courses.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

Yeah, it's a huge issue. I've talked about it before, but people that live near country clubs and golf courses have huge rates of Alzheimer's and non Hodgkin's lymphoma because of so much Roundup in the stormwater, in the air. It's like a big deal.

[A]

Also, which is great though rich people love to live near golf courses. So maybe this is a self fulfilling prophecy.

[B]

Well, fun fact. Hugh Grant had his lawyers file something like a protective order against the courts before he went to go testify because he said it would be, quote, an undue burden to make him testify because it would be, quote, of little value because he's not a toxicologist or I don't know how to say this type of epidemiologist.

[A]

Epidemiologist.

[B]

Thank you. Or regulatory expert. He, quote, did not work in the areas of toxicology while employed in Monsanto. Grant does not have, quote, any expertise in the studies and tests that have been done and related to Roundup.

[A]

Oh, laddie, I'm just in charge of the entire thing. I don't know how it works. Captain, I need more power. I love this. Also, he said, I didn't commit murder. Alan.

[B]

He's Alan coming now.

[A]

Murder.

[B]

Also, he said that his lawyer said in this protection from the courts you tried to get that if he had to testify in this one court case, it would be an undue burden because then he would get subpoenaed for the hundreds and hundreds of other cases. And that would be unfair because he already recorded himself on a VHS tape virtually making his testimony. And all those cases could just use that one video because no one's going

[A]

to come up with a different question. No one's gonna come up with a different question.

[B]

Comically evil.

[A]

That's so Evil. Yeah. Oh, laddie. If I have to testify in every single child cancer case that claims that my face is the reason why their children are dying, I'll be here all week. Don't you know I gotta go to an island. Yeah, we're going down to an island. We gotta make sure we have the clean. What?

[B]

Just hold that real quick. In September.

[A]

No, don't you just hold that real quick.

[B]

In September of 2016, German Chem Chemical company Bayer, the aspirin people, announced their intent to acquire Monsanto for $66 billion.

[A]

Little bit on the nose.

[B]

In an all cash deal.

[A]

All cash.

[B]

They had 66 billion up front in cash.

[A]

You know how Bear got that money?

[B]

Yeah, I do. We could do a whole episode about Bear.

[A]

About it. Because it's the Holocaust. Yeah, it's the Holocaust.

[B]

And they poison the aspirin in Africa. Yeah, and they didn't. They also poison baby formula.

[A]

There's a lot in there.

[B]

Anyway, in June 2020, Bayer agreed to pay numerous settlements in lawsuits involving Roundup and pcbs.

[A]

All right, laddie, you got to cover up all me lawsuits. I just started. We looked at. I went. I was German, Scottish.

[B]

I don't know what's happening. So Bayer, after they do this purchase of Monsanto, they have to pay a bunch of lawsuits for the Roundup. Right. But also for that old PCB shit from the 70s.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So.

[A]

But they had $66 billion in cash.

[B]

The Bayer Monsanto merger is considered one of the worst corporate mergers in history. Like, like business people refer to this and they're like, oh, the worst merger.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

Don't want to be like the Bay or Monsanto merger. Really Never want to buy the liability. You know what I mean?

[A]

Yeah. Because what they should have done, if they were really doing it, they would. They would take. Which. What happens with like dupont and others? Yeah, Other companies come in and they'll carve out specific divisions.

[B]

Yeah. Like private equity. They know what they're doing.

[A]

Well, private equity by the whole thing. And then they would sell off division by division, little parts here and there,

[B]

which is what Richard Gere's character did in Pretty Woman.

[A]

Back to every Julia Roberts movie.

[B]

No, that's literally what I was thinking.

[A]

I'm. Should we just put Julia Roberts in the thumbnail?

[B]

Oh, for sure.

[A]

We're. Put Julia Roberts in the thumbnail. Julia Roberts holding a strawberry. No, Julia Roberts holding a strawberry. And it just says, is this poison? And the thing is, is we're gonna have the arrow pointing at Julia Roberts.

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

And I'm making this face.

[B]

In March 2018, Hugh Grant announced that that after Monsanto was acquired by Bayer, he was going to leave the company and he was paid off, like in his golden parachute. Yeah, approximately $77 million.

[A]

Such specific numbers makes me so mad.

[B]

He now works as the director of Harris Distillery and he makes Scotch.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And the reason I said hold on to that is that he like, I guess owns this distill Scotch distillery that also makes gin on an island off of Scotland. And this is like his retirement job. Like he got 77 million and then he basically bought, I think, an island in Scotland and now just make Scotch there.

[A]

Oh, laddie, come out to the island. No children, just a drain of chrome and whiskey. That's a joke. And in my opinion, my opinion, it's a joke. And on a comedy history podcast that no one should ever take seriously, ever. Especially Hugh Grant's lawyers. And if you're a Hugh Grant, you have a problem. What I have to say, I mean, the other one.

[B]

Yeah, the actor.

[A]

Not the actor. No, the other Hugh Grant. There's probably a third Hugh Grant out there. There's got to be. If there's two Hugh Grants, there's definitely three. If you're Hugh Grant. Get the comments.

[B]

Right now, the Supreme Court, like, right now.

[A]

Boo.

[B]

The Supreme Court is discussing whether Bayer needs to be held liable for health side effects from roundups or can they have total immunity?

[A]

I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'm going to say in a 6, 3 landmark decision, Bayer cannot be held liable for any of the issues that they caused because they said the same exact thing about the president.

[B]

February 2025, our health secretary. Do you know who he is?

[A]

Healthy Human Services Secretary.

[B]

Yeah. Do you know who that is?

[A]

Never heard of it. Him or his harvest.

[B]

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

[A]

The harvest. You're the canyon.

[B]

The comments are going to be mad about this. Stop doing it.

[A]

I'm a river flowing into you.

[B]

Stop the harvest. Unless you're talking about the harvest of strawberries.

[A]

The strawberry. Let me eat one of your delicious berries.

[B]

You've eaten enough of them.

[A]

I'm eating a delicious berry.

[B]

Tummy ache.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

Well, maybe.

[A]

Maybe it suits my.

[B]

Stop doing the wrong. Stop it. He releases his Make America Healthy Again report. Remember when he released his report about how to Maha?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

In it, he blames glyphate for Americans health problems. In the official government document, he like fully blames glyphate, which is Roundup. Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Bayer goes to Trump and is like, the walls are closing in, bud. Bayer CEO meets with top White House officials and says the company can absorb billions of dollars in litigation. And if they can afford the lawsuits alleging that glyphate, the active ingredient Roundup, causes cancer, but it couldn't also face regulatory uncertainty about whether or not it was going to get banned.

[A]

They were going to. They were talking about banning it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because.

[B]

Because what RFK Jr sold to people on all those fucking podcasts when he was talking about Maha with all the things he did was that they were going to get rid of this stuff that was causing cancer in our food. That was his campaign promise. Yeah, that was his whole deal. And so then Bayer went to Trump and Trump's people and was like, we can handle all this other shit, but we can't have you in a government capacity talking about, like, banning. Banning Roundup.

[A]

Right, okay.

[B]

And then so basically they threatened to leave the U. S. Market. They're like, if you guys are going to do this, we're gonna leave the US and this was a huge concern because of phosphorus, the critical mineral used to make glycophate. Bayer is the sole domestic producer of phosphorus, and phosphorus is also used to make weapons and semiconductors and for fertilizers. So Trump signs an executive order that boosted domestic glyph production. The Trump administration had already approved Bayer's permits to mine elemental phosphorus in Idaho. And the executive order order called for Bayer to have legal immunity from the hundreds of lawsuits.

[A]

Wait, so let me get this straight.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So we need phosphorus for weapons and semiconductors, for data centers and dogs with guns on their backs. So because we need this phosphorus, but the only people who currently produce phosphorus in the United States are a German mega company that threatened to stop producing phosphorus because they might lose too many lawsuits and be banned from poisoning our communities with Roundup. Am I right on that? Is that what you're saying?

[B]

Yeah. I'm also saying that the same people that created the social media content, the blogs, the podcast, and all the things to back RFK Jr because they were afraid that the pesticides in the strawberries were causing. Were causing autism and issues that instead of fighting for good regulation, they. And stronger regulation and better testing and quality farming and going out there and supporting farmers in a way that's really useful, they sided with the devil.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because they also could not separate themselves from all the other and didn't think that it was a line in the sand. All the other. And they got us. Here is what I'm getting at.

[A]

Okay. All Right. So I guess my isn't my question.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Am I eating poison?

[B]

No.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Who knows?

[A]

Too many frauds and too many scammers that we wish weren't real. Too many cons and too many spammers and we're starting to feel like we've got too many tabs. Open it. Too many tabs. Remember to smile with VRBoCare, help is always ready before, during and after your stay. We've planned for the plot twists, so support is always available because a great trip starts with peace of mind. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion. And this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Libsyn Ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre produced ad like this one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Libsyn Ad ads, go to Libsynads.com that's L I B S Y N ads.com today.