The One-Straw Revolution - Multiworld India

that is not fresh can be sold because it looks fresh. Speaking biologically,fruit in a slightly shriveled state is holding its respiration and energyconsumption down to the lowest possible level. It is like a person inmeditation: his metabolism, respiration, and calorie consumption reachan extremely low level. Even if he fasts, the energy within the body willbe conserved. In the same way, when mandarin oranges grow wrinkled,when fruit shrivels, when vegetables wilt, they are in the state that willpreserve their food value for the longest possible time.It is a mistake to try to maintain the mere appearance of freshness, aswhen shopkeepers sprinkle water on their vegetables over and overagain. Although the vegetables are kept looking fresh, their `' flavor andnutritional value soon deteriorate.At any rate, all the agricultural cooperatives and collective sortingcenters have been integrated and expanded to carry out such unnecessaryactivities. This is called "modernization." The produce is packed andloaded onto the great delivery system and shipped off to the consumer.To say it in a word, until there is a reversal of the sense of valueswhich cares more for size and appearance than for quality, there will beno solving the problem of food pollution.88