0:00

From UFOs to psychic powers

0:02

and government conspiracies. History

0:04

is riddled with unexplained events. You

0:07

can turn back now or

0:09

learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A

0:12

production of iHeartRadio.

0:24

Hello, welcome back to the show. My name

0:26

is Matt, my name is Noah.

0:28

They call me Ben. We're joined as always

0:30

with our super producer Paul, Mission

0:33

Control decad. Most importantly,

0:36

you are here. That makes

0:38

this the stuff they don't

0:40

want you to know. We were talking

0:43

about this a little bit off air.

0:45

What is your favorite fruit, gentlemen.

0:48

I like a raspberry.

0:49

It's a nice fresh raspberry

0:51

fresh quotation fingers, I guess

0:53

today, but I usually don't

0:56

have too much trouble with getting a nice juicy

0:58

raspberry. I also used to be really kind of freaked

1:00

out by strawberries, but now I love them.

1:02

When they're when they're right.

1:03

Hmmm.

1:04

I'm not gonna explain what freaked me out. It's too

1:06

too random.

1:08

Okay, strawberries.

1:12

I'm changing mind from our discussion, by the way, because

1:14

I forgot about a delicious,

1:18

juicy, incredible

1:21

black or red grape that is

1:23

probably one of my favorites.

1:24

I don't f with grapes. I don't know.

1:26

With grapes, something about

1:28

the pop. It's a

1:30

texture for me. Yeah, it gets to me.

1:32

Naturally ripened grape.

1:35

The caviare of the vine, they call

1:38

it. No one calls it that.

1:41

What's yours?

1:42

Oh gosh, well, I'm super basic,

1:45

Matt. I'm glad you asked. Obviously. The

1:47

pineapple, that's

1:50

not basic at all. That's the fanciest of

1:52

fruits. We'll

1:54

get into it later.

1:55

Yeah.

1:56

Yeah, you know, for a lot of people,

1:58

the idea of buying

2:00

produce is I

2:04

think for most people across the

2:06

globe, the idea of buying produce,

2:09

vegetable or fruit is a

2:11

basic day to day thing. Here

2:14

in the United States, it can

2:16

be difficult to buy fresh food.

2:18

Depending on where you live, finding

2:21

fresh food can be darn near impossible,

2:24

you know.

2:25

Yeah, I mean, you know, I live in kind of a

2:27

bit of a food desert. But luckily I have a car

2:29

and they are amazing grocery stores just you know, ten

2:32

fifteen minutes away. But some gas

2:34

stations and areas like that will have like

2:36

the sad bowl of fruit,

2:39

the kind of withered bananas. You

2:41

know, you know it, you hate to see it, but

2:43

some people that is you know the

2:46

access they have.

2:47

Yeah, and every once in a while you'll get to go to that

2:49

glorious mecha of partner swapping Trader

2:52

Joe's and really get some good stuff.

2:54

M you go for your fresh produce.

2:56

That's where apples hang out upside

2:59

down.

3:00

Maybe the.

3:02

Okay, that was a good one. That's

3:04

a good joke. Also, tonight's

3:06

episode is based on a conversation

3:09

we had off air about

3:11

something that went viral on TikTok,

3:14

the idea that a peel is

3:17

meant to somehow conspire

3:21

against you when you buy produce.

3:23

We'll be right back.

3:30

Here are the facts. Okay,

3:32

produce it's

3:34

a big term, right, it's a big word.

3:36

It means a lot of stuff, every

3:39

kind of fruit, vegetable, grain, oat,

3:42

you could imagine. Basically, if

3:44

it's not an animal, then

3:46

it's produce, right.

3:48

Yeah, if it's not an animal and it's not processed.

3:51

Important point, Matt. If if

3:53

it's an orange by itself, it's

3:55

produce. If it is a carton

3:58

of orange juice, then

4:01

it is no longer produce.

4:02

Right, even if it's in you know, like

4:05

fresh squeezed, right, because it is processed.

4:07

I mean, even just the active squeezing as a form

4:10

of processing, even if it's not like that kind

4:12

that comes from the dreaded concentrates.

4:15

What a great point, though, because if if

4:18

produce is packaged, like

4:21

the sad banana right in

4:23

its own ziploc bag or whatever.

4:26

If produce is packaged, it can

4:28

still be produce. If the pineapple

4:31

is cut and put a little plastic

4:33

cup, it can still be pineapple.

4:36

I think it's when the thing itself

4:39

is messed with that means

4:41

it's no longer produce. Would

4:44

we say that's accurate.

4:45

That's my understanding.

4:46

Yeah, I think so. But it's hard to get

4:48

into also because if you think about something,

4:51

I'm going to say the brand name like Quaker oats, right

4:53

that you get in the large container, those

4:55

are oats. Those are mostly

4:59

unprocessed test but they

5:01

have been They've gone through lots

5:03

of processes. I

5:05

guess no, they are processed.

5:07

I'm wrong, Okay, But Matt, I see

5:09

what you're thinking on that, because it's a little

5:11

confusing because to me, if it was a

5:14

freshly squeezed orange juice,

5:16

then to me, that would it's

5:19

like not processed in a way

5:21

that involves other substances. It's

5:24

just you know, taking the essence of a thing

5:26

and like turning it into a different like consistency.

5:29

It's like mashing a potato, it's still a potato.

5:31

Well, it's so complicated because there's so many different

5:34

types of processed orange juicing

5:36

you can do. Right, we did that whole episode

5:38

we talked about. I think it is simply orange,

5:40

the one that completely breaks down

5:43

the orange and all of it into all of its constituent

5:45

parts and then recombines them magically

5:47

in a way that makes the perfect orange

5:49

juice.

5:50

I'm sorry, what does my simply orange do that? I don't

5:52

like the sound of that.

5:53

Well, it's the problem is

5:55

it's not simple.

5:59

It is just oranges.

6:01

It's just not simple.

6:02

Yeah, It's kind of like how the Quaker oats

6:04

guy gets younger every ten years.

6:08

Have you noticed that he used to be old

6:10

as hell? Now he's

6:13

like a waiter in Los

6:15

Angeles? It's nuts.

6:17

Is this like the fly type situation where

6:20

they put the orange into like a giant, weird portal

6:22

machine and it just like breaks it apart

6:24

into its atoms and puts it back together. God

6:27

forbid a fly or some other creature should

6:29

get into the simply orange juicing the

6:32

machine simply fly.

6:34

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

6:37

So the US has an ongoing

6:39

problematic love affair with

6:42

hyper sweetened, heavily processed

6:44

food. But the US is

6:46

still a global player

6:49

in produce, and it imports

6:52

a ton of stuff. A lot of

6:54

it comes from Mexico, Peru,

6:56

Chile, Guatemala, Costa Rica,

6:59

and those same countries also

7:01

send a lot of vegetables

7:04

to the United States. So the idea

7:06

is, if it's not an animal, if

7:08

it's not heavily processed, if

7:11

it is fruit or veg it

7:13

is produce.

7:15

Yeah.

7:15

And the World Health Organization, you

7:18

know them, they recommend people

7:20

consume four hundred grams of fruits and vegetables

7:23

every day. Four hundred

7:25

grams. It's a lot of grams

7:28

mm hm. And you know what we got.

7:31

We've read ads for a company before

7:33

that makes fruits and vegetables in pills,

7:36

because it's so difficult

7:38

for many of us to actually get that

7:41

much of fruits and vegetables in our

7:43

diet every day as we're going around. Maybe

7:45

if you're on the go a lot and you're choosing

7:47

deep fast food, which I am highly guilty

7:50

of, not easy to get those

7:52

those fresh vegetables and fruits into

7:54

you. But there are companies out there that offer

7:57

alternative ways to get that stuff

7:59

into you, but often beats the real thing.

8:01

The real thing being fresh

8:04

fruits and vegetables. I imagine,

8:06

right one.

8:08

Would real once again in quotation fish.

8:11

Yeah, the Asian Pacific

8:14

region dominates the fresh

8:16

fruits market. That population

8:19

imports the most

8:21

fresh fruits. If

8:23

you ask your non US friends,

8:26

they will have some pretty

8:30

not great opinions about

8:33

fruit and veg in the United

8:35

States. Like and we've seen

8:37

it. If you travel to a different country,

8:40

Noel, you can speak to this, Like in

8:42

Spain.

8:43

The.

8:45

Typical raspberry or

8:47

the typical strawberry, or just the

8:49

typical asparagus is

8:51

a little bit different from the kind of stuff

8:54

you would eat in the United States.

8:56

Well, it's just everywhere they have these massive like

8:58

city markets, you know, and it's so much more

9:00

walkable and bustible and

9:02

you know, public transportable city

9:05

And then I imagine in the outskirts in

9:07

Spain and around Europe, you know, it's almost

9:09

even more prevalent in terms of being able to get access

9:12

to fresh fruits and vegetables because there's such a you

9:14

know, agrarian kind of you know, economy

9:16

and agrarian sort of culture there. But

9:20

here in America it's very

9:22

spotty. It's very you know, kind of

9:24

patchy, I guess would be a better word.

9:26

Well, we just.

9:27

Talked about how we didn't say

9:29

this. By the way, only one in ten Americans actually

9:31

get four hundred grams of fresh fruits and vegetables

9:34

every day, So we're

9:36

not we're already kind of not doing

9:38

a great job getting the stuff in US, but we're also

9:40

not doing a great job making the stuff. As we

9:42

said, we import most of the fresh fruits

9:45

and vegetables that we have in grocery

9:47

stores, and really think

9:49

about, how do I get a

9:51

bunch of fresh strawberries grown

9:54

and then shipped from another country

9:57

to the United States through all of those avenues

9:59

you on ships, on trains,

10:01

maybe on boats, whatever you got to do to

10:04

get at someplace, temperature

10:06

controlling the thing the entire time,

10:08

and then when it hits the store it's supposed

10:10

to be fresh.

10:13

Dude.

10:13

I mean, I had a grocery car full of

10:15

Costco stuff yesterday and had

10:18

to go straight to an appointment and was literally

10:20

worried that them sitting in the hot car for a

10:22

couple hours was.

10:23

Going to be you know, bad news.

10:25

I mean, I just it boggles my mind

10:28

how we depend on that level

10:30

of infrastructure and like you know, it's the

10:32

word logistics to get this stuff. God

10:35

knows how many miles you know, from origin

10:38

point to our fruit baskets,

10:40

fruit boats.

10:41

That's awesome though, that you had that, You

10:44

had those vegetables or those

10:46

fruits in your car. You had a

10:48

mobile greenhouse, you know what I

10:50

mean. People used to kill

10:53

each other to have that capability.

10:56

Yeah.

10:56

But I had a cucumber melt when

10:58

I was in Ohio. It excited

11:01

from the time somehow, like

11:04

yeah, I think it was frozen or something.

11:06

And when I picked it up at the little

11:08

island grocery store that I was at, it

11:11

feels great. I was like, oh, it's got some good tension

11:13

in this cucuver, got it in the car,

11:15

got it back to the house, put it in the

11:17

fridge, walked away for a second, came

11:20

back, went to cut it for my son, and

11:22

the dang thing was melted. It was

11:24

it became it became like gelatinous.

11:27

Weird grossroth Man.

11:29

But like that's the thing too.

11:30

It's not sufficient to just freeze

11:33

things, uh, to transport them

11:35

those long distances, because that creates

11:37

a different product, that creates a different

11:39

consistency. And when you buy frozen

11:41

berries or frozen vegetables, that's one

11:43

type of thing, and you know what consistency you're

11:46

gonna get. But the presumption when

11:48

you're buying stuff that's in your you know, produce

11:50

department in the grocery store, is that it hasn't been

11:52

frozen.

11:53

Yeah, that's the idea.

11:55

Right.

11:57

In earlier evenings, people were

12:00

only able to eat stuff

12:02

that grew near them.

12:05

This is nuts. No one ever thinks about

12:07

it. We got all these stereotypes

12:10

about Irish people and potatoes. Your

12:13

Irish ancestors, if you go far

12:15

enough back, they would have been thoroughly.

12:17

Baffled by the idea

12:19

of a potato, the modern potato.

12:22

Yeah, they would have not known what was

12:24

going on. You're Italian,

12:26

Korean, or Chinese predecessors,

12:29

depending on your lineage, They

12:32

would have lost their minds

12:34

if they saw a tomato. Italy

12:37

is still dealing with that as a culture

12:40

and as a cuisine. The idea

12:42

of getting local and regional and global

12:44

trade networks changed

12:47

the interaction of

12:49

humans with produce. I

12:52

mean it's it's nuts.

12:54

Check out the episode on

12:57

the Colombian Exchange. Check

12:59

out our our earlier episode on

13:01

corn. Corn has a ridiculous

13:04

history.

13:04

Yeah.

13:05

Man, once they started doing Freak on a leash and all

13:07

over t RL, it was over for them.

13:09

Yeah. And then they made a podcast, did

13:12

they? Yeah, acorns ridiculous

13:15

history.

13:16

What I'll

13:18

recall having a co host who is in the band

13:20

corn or who is an anthropomorphized

13:22

piece of corn.

13:23

Just no, geez,

13:26

thanks, no in the oh, let's

13:28

be really, you're in either of those things.

13:29

You're You're just well.

13:33

I do think I rap a little bit

13:35

better than Jonathan Davis, but

13:41

it's more of a than a rap, right, He's

13:44

talent to man, he's down to man. In

13:47

the modern evenings, developed

13:49

countries have leveraged

13:51

logistics to send all

13:54

the stuff that you could

13:56

not get in your neck of the global

13:58

woods are the planet stuff

14:01

that you simply would

14:04

have read about, you know, for centuries

14:07

before about what will we say

14:11

the mid eighteen hundreds is

14:13

when it really became popularized

14:15

for the average person. Fruits, vegetables,

14:18

grains across the planet. Now

14:20

they're delivered directly to your door,

14:22

even when they grow out of season.

14:25

You can also make this stuff

14:28

shelf stable, and

14:31

you can only do it because there are

14:33

some

14:35

monopolies. There's a little

14:37

bit of a corporatism involved.

14:40

I think what we're saying is there

14:42

is a hidden price to

14:45

this convenience. What do we mean

14:47

by hidden price? Well, I mean I guess it depends

14:49

on who you ask.

14:50

As we've been talking about, the logistical

14:53

magic trick that is the appearance of

14:56

all of these perishable items

14:58

from wherever might

15:00

actually not just be a simple product

15:03

of all of those moving

15:05

parts combined.

15:05

It's the greatest, something greater than some of those parts.

15:08

It might actually be something that can't

15:10

be explained by planes, trains, and automobiles

15:12

and cargo ships and all of that good stuff.

15:15

It gets us all of these products that we

15:17

enjoy and or depend on. What

15:21

if the methods that we're used to preserve all

15:23

this stuff turned out to actually

15:26

be an issue in and of itself, you

15:28

know what.

15:29

If it was unsafe?

15:30

Well, yeah, because you're you're

15:32

either in order to achieve

15:35

the goal of how do I make this tomato

15:37

more shelf stable for a longer period

15:40

of time or this apple to survive longer

15:42

on the shelf at my local food

15:45

dealer. Well, I

15:47

can either genetically modify the

15:50

actual seed and the plant

15:53

that you know, the tree that grows the apple, and

15:55

I can change its traits

15:57

if I want to. I can

16:00

apply some kind of product,

16:03

chemical thing to that

16:06

apple once it's grown, to make sure

16:08

the exterior of it is safe,

16:11

right, because that if you're messing

16:13

with genetics, that's the interior you're messing

16:15

with. If you're spraying it with something

16:17

that's the exterior, like a coding of

16:20

some sort, like we're going to be talking about today,

16:22

or it can get it can

16:25

get even weirder. You can artificially

16:27

do things to these plants to

16:29

make them ready to go once

16:32

they hit the shelves, but not ready

16:34

to go when they're inside their transport

16:36

vehicles.

16:37

What if there is a conspiracy

16:39

afoot will pause for

16:41

a word from our sponsors. Here's

16:50

where it gets crazy. This

16:52

is perfect. This is the claim that

16:54

went viral on social

16:56

media platforms. It grew like

16:59

mint and that is a joke for everybody

17:02

who has had to deal with mint in their

17:04

garden. On TikTok,

17:07

which is kind of the

17:09

new version of old tabloids

17:12

like National Enquirer or

17:14

Weekly World News. They're the ones

17:16

who published stories about

17:19

bat Boy and so on, or

17:21

like Elvis is alive, he

17:23

lives in Minnesota and is very

17:26

good at line dancing.

17:28

But now there's like a new bat Boy every five

17:30

seconds. And it's not just the product

17:33

of one, you know, weird publication

17:35

concocting a bizarre story

17:37

to sell papers. It's like this whole echo

17:39

chamber and that just you know, it's

17:42

like self perpetuates. It's bizarre.

17:44

Sorry, we're not here to litigate TikTok and

17:46

the internet today, but you're pointing that out then,

17:48

I think that's really spot on, and it really made me

17:51

kind of triggered me.

17:52

It made my brain twitch a little bit.

17:54

Yeah, why can't he just be a

17:56

batperson?

17:57

You know, he stayed

17:59

a boy forever. We would see when does he become When

18:01

does he finally become a batman?

18:03

Batman.

18:05

The claims that we're seeing on

18:08

TikTok center on the idea

18:11

of preservation coding in

18:13

general, the concept that substances

18:16

applied to fruits will

18:18

keep them edible. From as

18:21

you were saying, Matt, the long travel

18:23

from point A to point Z, and

18:26

as we're recording this. On the evening

18:29

of August twenty

18:31

six, twenty twenty four, we

18:33

see a lot of social media

18:36

accounts claiming a specific

18:38

company called a Peel

18:42

get It are part of a grand

18:44

conspiracy to absolutely

18:46

screw over innocent

18:49

fans of produce. It's

18:51

your name, though, Yeah, can we spell it

18:53

out?

18:54

S p e e L? I

18:56

mean I got?

18:57

I guess is that it meant to be a pun like, Hey, we are

18:59

Appealing as a company, but we also

19:02

deal in things that have a peel. It's,

19:04

to your point, been the more innocuous

19:07

and maybe silly the name, perhaps sometimes

19:09

the more nefarious the edens.

19:11

Okay, so how do we hear about this? Guess

19:13

what? TikTok tck

19:16

talk.

19:19

So it's news and fake news at

19:21

the same time.

19:22

I don't understand there's an actual company

19:25

that makes a thing. It's not

19:27

called appeal appeals. The company they make

19:29

what's the name of the thing they make?

19:31

Eddie peel eddie d p

19:34

E E L.

19:35

Is that a play on Oedipus? Is there?

19:37

Some it's edible?

19:42

But this the idea is

19:45

real. This is a coating that is supposed

19:47

to help protect the produce as it's

19:49

either traveling to protect it from animals

19:51

and other pests and things like that. It is

19:53

like armor for your apples,

19:56

baby, and it's real

19:58

and it's a thing. The TikTok comes

20:00

in where there are multiple

20:03

creators making multiple videos

20:05

that point to this specific company and

20:07

this substance as being extremely

20:10

dangerous for human health. And

20:12

then they take it a step further and say, not only

20:14

is it dangerous, it is being purposefully

20:17

produced by somebody

20:19

like the infamous Bill

20:21

Gates that created Microsoft

20:23

and now wants to kill everyone.

20:25

That monster.

20:26

Yeah, him and Melinda

20:29

made a foundation just to ruin

20:31

your day by doing things like

20:34

eradicating malaria communicable

20:37

disease.

20:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

20:40

I will say this.

20:42

I don't want to like sound like

20:44

I'm being codd or something like that. I am

20:46

inherently suspicious of all people

20:48

with that degree of wealth.

20:50

So like, I.

20:51

Do think that maybe on the service what

20:53

they're doing is like quote unquote good, but

20:56

I also don't really know, and I

20:59

have to have it as a healthy amount of skepticism

21:01

for these types of things with this sort

21:04

of front of ultimate magnanimity,

21:07

you.

21:07

Know, I think that's a universal

21:09

thing. You're not alone. I think

21:11

most people should be that way.

21:14

It's not a singular thing because you

21:16

know, you see these billionaires

21:19

and you think, when's the last time they saw

21:21

a nickel? When's the last time

21:23

they held a coin and thought,

21:26

do I need this coin later?

21:28

I got. I would love it if Bill Gates

21:30

like just rolled around with a couple of twenties in his pocket

21:33

and just paid in cash for things whenever he could.

21:36

That would just make me so happy.

21:38

Yeah. Yeah, he only eats McDonald's

21:40

though. When you hear that, like he really loves

21:42

McDonald's.

21:44

Oh dude, you know he's got like he rents.

21:46

It out and there's an entire fancy

21:48

like Michigan Star restaurant for some event and

21:50

had his people call out and bring him in McDonald's.

21:53

He didn't like, it's a thing.

21:55

Does Melinda know?

21:57

Imagine she fully supports him and all of this. It

22:00

is funny though, considering what we're talking about,

22:03

right, But I mean.

22:05

You didn't they get a divorce.

22:08

I am that's a difficult man to be,

22:11

I imagine statistically.

22:13

Yes, I don't know the answer to that, but

22:17

uh, we'll.

22:17

Have to look it up. I think we've got we've got

22:20

some top man on it, Uh, the

22:22

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was

22:26

was funny.

22:28

Had no idea. I had no idea.

22:30

Well, you're you're my top guy. You're on it, said,

22:32

we had top guys on it. I'm the guy in the chair,

22:35

so all right. So the

22:38

Bill m Melinda Gates Foundation

22:41

is a classic

22:43

villain in a lot of this conspiracy

22:45

folklore. And the concept

22:47

here is that a peel

22:50

through the technology Eddie

22:53

Peel or the proprietary coding

22:56

is somehow after

22:59

you any one who is not a

23:01

billionaire, and they're the

23:03

implications like why

23:05

why would these people do this? The

23:07

implication is that eating

23:10

this produce coded with this

23:12

stuff will either lead to sterilization

23:16

or increase your chances of

23:19

cancer, decrease

23:21

your intelligence, or

23:24

it will make you addicted to

23:27

consuming insert product

23:30

here, which is these

23:32

are heavy claims, right, have you guys

23:35

encountered any of this? Like these

23:38

claims? First off, have you encountered

23:40

these claims? And then secondly,

23:42

do you believe any of them?

23:45

First of all, I would say I encountered it for the first time

23:48

on Instagram on reels and

23:50

it was specifically talking about appeal, which

23:53

then led me down the rabbit hole of trying to really

23:55

understand what the heck it is because

23:58

the coaching, because it

24:00

was one of those videos that you'll see all

24:02

over the place where there's an AI voice

24:04

reading captions that are on the screen

24:06

with some what seem like random

24:09

imagery, sometimes maybe even stock

24:11

imagery, and you're just trying to discern

24:13

if any of it's true or real, and

24:17

it's pretty disturbing. I would say the

24:21

Gates Foundation thing does

24:23

go back to the population control theories

24:25

that touch a whole bunch of other

24:28

hypotheses and theories that are out there

24:30

about connecting docts that aren't

24:32

necessarily there. But it's

24:35

one of those things that feel it feels

24:38

like it could be real just enough

24:40

that it piques your interest, and I think

24:43

that's one of the reasons that it got shared

24:45

so many times, at least the particular one that I

24:47

saw.

24:48

And not to make this about those AI generated

24:50

stories, but aren't those, in a way just sort

24:52

of the new version of those clickbait, little

24:55

stubby kind of stories that were

24:57

like a paragraph followed by fifteen

24:59

ads and then another little paragraph, And they're usually

25:01

about celebrity nonsense or

25:03

some kind of sex tape or this

25:05

kind of conspiracy, you know, spreading.

25:08

But it's interesting because I've gotten the point

25:10

where when I hear that voice and I think it's one

25:12

of those.

25:13

I just am like, Nope, I just can't. It's

25:15

it's bad news.

25:17

I love those voices. I sit through them

25:19

because it's something where it's like, it's

25:21

like the

25:24

apple considered apple

25:26

pong apples are from Cosaics

25:28

song why did Jennifer Lopez

25:30

divorce bin Off from? It's

25:33

a bunch of weird stock images. You

25:36

know, it's a it's a strange Rorshach

25:38

test, And most of what we're

25:41

seeing here vibes with as

25:43

you were saying, Matt, the earlier accusations

25:46

against the Gates Foundation.

25:50

It returns to the idea that

25:52

obscenely wealthy people are

25:55

in some sort of cabul

25:58

to engage with law scale

26:01

population control, and

26:03

the concept there also

26:05

arrives at the idea of removing

26:08

the ability to think right. Similar

26:12

with or similar to, I

26:14

should say, fluoride poisoning

26:17

conspiracies. Yeah, and we know

26:19

that there are provable aspects of this, such

26:21

as the lead

26:23

poisoning hypothesis. I

26:25

don't think it was on purpose, but lead

26:28

exposure plausibly

26:30

led to jeez, plausibly

26:34

created some

26:36

crimes. It's scary stuff,

26:39

you know, It's not coming from a

26:41

clear blue sky. Maybe the most

26:43

important thing to remember is that

26:45

wealthy people are no

26:48

more intelligent than the average

26:50

person. That's the assumption

26:54

of these conspiracies, the assignation

26:57

of some sort of grand chess

27:00

Master Kissinger level four

27:04

D chess. It's just I

27:07

don't know, man, Most people are the same

27:09

everywhere you go.

27:10

I just think in general, it's yeah, to your point,

27:12

then you're right. People are just a

27:15

little more straightforward than that.

27:17

It's a weird thing because this does feel like

27:19

a It's

27:22

not an altruistic thing. Let's not pretend

27:25

anything about that. This is a for profit company

27:27

that is making a thing that is going to make lots and

27:30

lots of money, and has been making lots of money

27:32

since. By the way, I think twenty eighteen is

27:34

around the first time I remember hearing about Appeal

27:37

when it was associated with avocados and

27:41

NBC was talking about it, and everybody

27:43

was like, it wasn't even a big deal.

27:45

Nobody knew, nobody really cared. It was just,

27:47

oh, here's a way to preserve a

27:49

couple of different types of produce a

27:51

little bit longer with this coding. But

27:54

in the end it feels like a good thing. It

27:56

is a good thing. I think, I don't know.

27:58

I think Bill Gates is trying to kill everyone.

28:00

I think that's probably the most likely scenario.

28:03

By the way, did you guys did you hear? According

28:05

to Vanity Fair and Melinda Gates

28:07

his own words, well, the main reason she divorced

28:10

Bill was because of his work with a

28:12

guy who had an island. Ooh

28:15

know what I'm talking about? She

28:18

names names, She says, like, because one

28:20

of the reasons, one of a myriad number of

28:22

reasons that she divorced Bill

28:24

is because of his work with Jeffrey Epstein.

28:27

Yeah from earlier, Yeah,

28:30

jeff from earlier.

28:31

Yeah, and that's from March of

28:33

twenty twenty two.

28:35

I had not heard that, Matt.

28:36

That's wild pretty recent.

28:40

The foundation continues, though, because

28:42

we have to realize at that financial

28:44

threshold, the institution

28:47

acquires a life of its own right,

28:50

so such that a Bill

28:53

and Melinda could pass away

28:55

and a Bill and Melinda Foundation could

28:58

theoretically soldier

29:00

on. After intense

29:03

research, the

29:05

three of us could find no actionable

29:08

intelligence indicating that

29:10

appeal was part of a grand

29:13

scheme to poison, sterilize,

29:15

or dumb people

29:18

down via preservation

29:20

methods, just like the eradication

29:23

of communicable disease. It

29:26

appears that the Foundation itself

29:28

was it was

29:30

donating to things right, It

29:33

wasn't necessarily leading

29:35

research. What most likely

29:37

happened is someone went into

29:40

a boardroom and pitched an

29:42

idea and someone said

29:44

yes, right, and the

29:46

Foundation therefore assigned

29:49

some money to it. But we like a

29:51

face on our villains. We

29:54

like someone that we

29:56

can look at when we have a problem.

30:00

It's weird because I love that you were

30:02

pointing out, Matt, how we had the

30:05

appeal technology as

30:08

a civilization back in what

30:10

did you say twenty eighteen?

30:12

Twenty eighteen is when I first read about

30:14

it. I think maybe it's been around for longer

30:16

than that. But James Rogers

30:19

is the guy's name who created appeal and then

30:21

it got backed by at least

30:23

you know, the Gates money, and

30:25

that was a while ago.

30:26

And it is an iteration

30:29

on a theme. We're going to pause

30:31

for a word from our sponsors, and

30:33

then when we come back, we're

30:35

going to learn some weirder

30:38

stuff about fruit preservation,

30:40

produce preservation, that goes

30:43

far, far far before Bill

30:46

Gates ever clicked a mouse

30:49

clicked at a window. What is our

30:51

best? Bill Gates stroke.

30:52

Looked out, O wind, there we go.

31:00

We've returned. Here's the truth.

31:03

People have been coating produce

31:06

with artificial protective layers

31:09

for like a thousand

31:11

years minimum.

31:13

Yeah, let's look at apples as a great example.

31:16

In twenty seventeen, a piece

31:18

in The Atlantic by Julia Phillips pointed out that

31:21

apples that you pick right from a tree

31:23

are you know, dirty. I

31:26

mean, anything that grows out of the ground's gonna

31:28

gross out of dirt. It's gonna and you have a little

31:30

dirt on it. They are often scarred, pock

31:33

marked. They're out there in the

31:36

nature. There might be worms,

31:38

there might be you know, animals taking

31:41

a little bite or whatever. Most plants

31:43

are able to house organisms

31:46

when they're left to their own devices in the

31:48

wild, you know. But also like

31:50

for the most part of the animals that are

31:52

eating these things, or if they're growing

31:54

wild, they're not exactly the same

31:56

as like the American consumer in terms

31:58

of like their expectation of perfection.

32:01

Very true, there's also something to

32:03

think about here with apples. If an apple

32:06

falls from the tree on which it was grown

32:08

and then hits the ground. Yes, it could be dirty.

32:10

Yes, you might not even use that in the you

32:12

know, the bushels of apples that you're collecting.

32:15

But when do you pick

32:17

the apple? When is the apple

32:20

fresh and ready and ripe to

32:22

be picked and then sold. That

32:25

is a whole other question we're going to get into here, because

32:27

when if you pick it at the right time,

32:30

it is almost ripe enough

32:33

to be on the shelf.

32:34

But the right time, yeah.

32:38

Just don't ripe enough to make it on those

32:40

trips.

32:41

Right.

32:41

So again, you want

32:43

to use something like this technology

32:45

like appeal to keep the apple safe

32:48

and long enough and worm free

32:51

until you can get it right at there

32:53

at time and then send it off.

32:55

It's sort of like taking a steak off of the grill before

32:58

it's done cooking, because it's going to continue cooking.

33:00

It's like timing is everything. And I

33:02

saw a really interesting interview with Neil de

33:04

grass Tyson or he was speaking to Anthony

33:06

Bourdain who posed this notion

33:09

to you know, to the grass

33:11

Tyson that seemed to kind of blow his mind, which

33:13

usually it's the other way around in terms of minds

33:15

being blown. But Bourdain said that

33:17

food in general and throughout

33:20

history, it's it's all about

33:23

getting it at the perfect.

33:25

Level of decay. Yeah,

33:27

like everything is decaying.

33:29

And then like when you find the quote, even the word

33:31

ripe is often used to refer

33:34

to like corpses, because it is

33:36

a measure of level

33:38

of decay.

33:39

Yeah, it's ethylene concentration. If

33:42

you think about a banana, the reason

33:44

why the color change on the outside,

33:46

it is this cool little signal to

33:49

let the user of said banana to

33:51

know when it's time. Same to do with the squishiness

33:54

of that banana. It's time to eat

33:56

this thing now. But it's not really for that.

33:59

That's the that's the banana naturally

34:01

decaying and let you know, letting

34:05

loose some of these chemicals that break

34:07

down the substances. That's why it

34:10

smells good. That's why it tastes

34:12

good.

34:13

It's the advertisement to

34:15

the rest of the natural world.

34:17

Eat me, come here, Yes, let's

34:20

me spread my seeds, yes,

34:23

and poop the seeds.

34:24

Suctive, It's true.

34:26

It's true. Also, unless

34:28

we slutshame produce

34:30

here. There there is also

34:33

there is also a fascinating

34:35

thing with ethylene that will get into later.

34:39

We need to understand there is

34:41

a reason that certain fruits

34:44

in particular will accelerate

34:46

the ripening process, or

34:48

the entropy. That's what we're dancing

34:51

around, the entropy of other

34:54

pieces of the natural world.

34:57

Folks try to preserve this.

34:59

By folks, I mean humans. The first

35:02

US patent for coating

35:05

fruits with wax.

35:08

It dates back to nineteen twenty

35:10

two in the United States. It's

35:13

a mixture of your old school paraffin,

35:15

wax and kerosene. It's

35:17

made by a guy named Ernest Brogden,

35:20

and absolutely no one

35:23

thought it was weird that it was spraying

35:25

fruit with kerosene. They were

35:27

like, right on, man, now I can

35:29

have apples a little later. No,

35:32

I can have some pears that

35:35

are not immediately going

35:37

bad.

35:38

Well, that's the thing too.

35:39

If you buy stuff like that fruit

35:41

and vegetables from your local farmers market or

35:43

from like a farm stand or whatever, and

35:45

you're not used to doing that, they're

35:47

gonna go bad in a day or so. You

35:50

know they're gonna go bad in just a couple of days. And

35:52

that might be surprising to some people who

35:54

are used to only buying fruits and vegetables

35:57

from like a giant conglomo

35:59

you know, groceries.

36:02

Yeah, most fruits do this

36:04

on their own. They manufacture

36:07

or generate their own protective covering.

36:09

It's a it's a talcum

36:12

esque powder made of fat crystals.

36:15

That's why, like to our earlier example,

36:18

when you're picking apples from your

36:20

proverbial tree, they look all

36:22

pock marked and scarred and a little

36:24

bit dusty. Even if you can't find

36:26

a source of dust, they're generating

36:30

that covering. It's similar to

36:32

how chicken

36:35

eggs need to be refrigerated

36:38

in, as you said, a conglomcose

36:41

store if you purchase them from there.

36:43

But if you purchased chicken eggs

36:46

from a guy who just grows chickens,

36:48

you don't have to refrigerate them.

36:50

Yeah, and they're better, Boy, are they

36:52

better? Like I'm sorry not to be that guy, but

36:54

they do taste different. They've got a different

36:56

color. There's just a vibe to them

36:58

that feels much better.

37:01

And I, you know, I do

37:03

my best to buy the nicer eggs, I guess from

37:05

the grocery store or the brown kind of quote unquote

37:08

cage free ones. But we even know that those situations

37:10

are not what they seem. You know, the notion

37:13

of cage free. It's sort of like loaded

37:15

like it actually means sure, they're

37:18

not like in like sharing a single

37:20

cage with like hundreds of chickens. But they're also

37:22

not just like roaming the wild, you

37:24

know, hills, like foraging

37:27

on grain or whatever.

37:28

Let's also put out here, we're talking

37:30

about this kerosene wax mixture

37:32

that was applied to the exterior of fruits

37:35

to theoretically preserve them a little

37:37

bit longer there, and they

37:39

make their own essentially

37:41

protective coating. Many fruits do, and

37:44

vegetables many of them even

37:46

have a protective coating like a

37:49

peel or you know, an exoskeleton

37:52

of sorts, like a banana, like an avocado

37:54

like something like that. But that isn't

37:56

always sufficient to prevent oxidation.

37:59

And again, some of those natural Again,

38:02

I keep using ethylene concentrations because

38:04

one of the things I looked at, I think Pharmisen

38:07

one of the things they talked about ethylene a lot. And

38:11

as you said, Ben, we're going to talk about ethylene

38:13

gas in a second, because that stuff

38:15

is dangerous

38:17

in my opinion. But the

38:21

oh, where was I going? Matt you were going somewhere. We

38:23

were going to talk about. One of the other big

38:25

problems that we've had with produce is

38:28

humanity's attempts to prevent pests

38:30

from eating all that fruit. We're talking about

38:32

stuff that's on the outsides of the fruit, something

38:35

like an orange. Well, you spray

38:37

some of that stuff down with pesticides, at least

38:40

historically humans, and a

38:42

lot of that stuff is so dangerous

38:45

and bad for us, even though we

38:48

have to trust the FDA is saying the concentrations

38:51

are whatever it is, that's safe for us. It's

38:53

fine, sure, sure,

38:56

but there are substances, dangerous

38:58

substances that have been sprayed on our produce for

39:01

decades. And I would say,

39:03

gentlemen, we grew up eating a lot of that

39:05

pest aside on our fruits and bench oh.

39:07

Yeah, look how we turned out. Not great?

39:10

Ah, we're doing all right.

39:12

Joke.

39:12

Also, we grew up in the time

39:15

where the FDA's rationale

39:17

was something like, spray whatever

39:19

you want on the surface of the

39:22

produce. It has a peal.

39:24

You just peel off the orange. Yeah,

39:26

peel you know.

39:27

Or you're gonna wash it. Duh,

39:29

it'll be fine.

39:30

Yeah, what are they gonna do use lemons?

39:33

S Are they fancy?

39:34

This is America? Oh I love lemons.

39:37

Do you guys have like a hardcore policy on washing

39:39

your produce? Yes?

39:40

I wash it every every goal piece, even

39:43

if it says we washed it three times.

39:45

You're good smart. It was just interested

39:47

in your a stance on this.

39:49

I use water when I wash it.

39:51

Ooh that's a hot take.

39:53

That wait way

39:55

to hire as you're plumbing,

39:59

jesezu.

39:59

This so the concept

40:02

of a peel the

40:04

company, right, not the concept of

40:07

a peel on a piece

40:09

of produce, the brand

40:11

a peel as a

40:14

threat. It went viral on social

40:16

media for a couple of reasons,

40:18

and one of the primary reasons

40:20

is the visibility of

40:22

the sticker, which is actually EPI

40:25

peel. That's the sticker people

40:27

were looking at. And it's kind of

40:29

similar to how folks would allege

40:33

that Nabisco was

40:36

some sort of flagship of

40:38

a Freemason based Illuminati

40:40

cabal because of the little

40:43

stamp on the Oreo cookies or

40:46

the you.

40:47

Know, there's kind of a seal. Yeah, yeah,

40:49

I've never really examined it very closely. Is

40:51

it nefarious?

40:52

And it's it's

40:55

it's literally a thing you would stamp

40:58

on a cookie to make it distinctive.

41:00

But the idea is uh.

41:02

The The argument here is that

41:05

one could, if one

41:07

has the right perspective, immediately

41:09

identify conspiracy. The problem

41:12

is, real conspiracies

41:14

don't advertise themselves. Real

41:17

conspiracies don't have a

41:19

big symbol that says, hey,

41:22

look at me, I'm doing

41:24

evil things. Real conspiracies

41:27

hide themselves, just like the

41:30

monopolization of food.

41:32

Shout out to Dole, Shout out

41:34

to Nestle,

41:37

Shout out to kelen Nova right,

41:39

shout out to those guys who buy

41:41

Kelenova recently.

41:43

Oh it was now that was your story

41:45

from Strange News?

41:48

Was Mars Mars?

41:49

Yes, yes, shout

41:51

a little family outfit than Mars Corporation.

41:54

Yeah, mom and pop.

41:56

Well, let's go ahead and quickly say exactly

41:58

what appeal is. And I think we can use

42:01

cucumbers, even though it's not the best

42:03

example because appeal has mostly been used

42:05

so far, at least in places

42:08

like Tescos on different

42:10

types of oranges like mandarins and

42:13

avocados specifically. But in the United

42:16

States, they ran tests with this

42:18

substance, this coating on cucumbers,

42:22

and guys have you ever bought a hothouse

42:24

cucumber that is wrapped

42:27

in a really tight plastic wrapping.

42:29

Yeah, it's illegal for you to ask me that.

42:34

It's like shrink crap.

42:36

Whenever I'm buying cucumbers for like my son and

42:38

I, I will buy that specific type

42:40

of cucumber. It doesn't matter where it's from. I look

42:42

for the one that's basically plastic wrapped,

42:45

and I don't think twice about it. I go,

42:47

oh, that one's got to be fresh, super fresh.

42:50

It's wrapped in plastic, and I chop it all up,

42:52

send it all the way with my son to school, and

42:54

I consume a bunch of it myself. Well,

42:57

this appeal is just

42:59

a coating. It would be a plasticless

43:02

coating, which sounds good to my ears

43:04

that you spray onto that cucumber,

43:07

And it's made up of mono and diglycerides,

43:10

which are those same fatty acids that

43:13

create the natural coatings that most fruits

43:15

and vegetables have. Yeah, so theoretically

43:19

appeal is just a little

43:21

extra natural coating, but it

43:23

is manufactured vegetable

43:27

fruit based mono and diglycerides.

43:30

That's true. It also

43:33

brings us to another part

43:35

of the conversation. It is dangerously

43:38

tempting to see a sticker on a thing, whether

43:41

that be an apple, a cucumber, a banana

43:43

and avocado, and immediately

43:46

assume, Hey, I saw the sticker.

43:48

I am included in this conspiracy.

43:51

I am somehow read on. But to

43:53

be clear, there are produce

43:56

production conspiracies at

43:58

play. They're not the kind of things you

44:00

see advertised with a

44:03

sticker. We have to talk

44:05

about ethylene gas,

44:07

the chemical name C two H

44:09

four. It's a naturally

44:11

occurring thing. It's what ripens

44:14

fruit, what encourages uh to

44:17

Anthony Bourdain's earlier point, the

44:20

entropy.

44:20

Yeah, but you can also use ethylene

44:22

gas in a Uh, you

44:25

can introduce ethylene gas to produce

44:27

in an environment. Oh wow, Hey that's

44:30

my son. Hey hey, he's behind me.

44:32

He's excited.

44:34

Uh.

44:34

We're talking about fruits and vegetables. Writer, how much

44:36

do you like those cucumbers we get,

44:39

I won't wish if you salted, and

44:45

how like good? They

44:47

feel like they're like perfect?

44:53

Thank you buddy. He left me hanging,

44:55

no high five.

44:55

That's okay, legend, absolute

44:58

legend.

44:59

So the ethylene gas is something you can

45:01

do artificially. You can introduce that

45:03

to Let's say you've got a truckload

45:07

of I don't know, what's something, guys, bananas.

45:10

Sham my truck of bananas. What

45:12

am I gonna do?

45:13

Well, you put it into you dropped

45:15

that giant container or whatever, all those containers

45:18

of bananas into a room. Then

45:20

you release ethylene gas, and what that

45:22

will do is artificially

45:25

ripe in those bananas. But

45:28

guess what, guys, ethylene

45:30

gas doesn't penetrate all the way

45:32

into the center of that delicious banana.

45:35

What it does is it makes

45:38

the exterior nice and ripe,

45:40

to make it look like the bananas

45:43

ready to eat, even though the inside

45:45

says, oh, guys, i'd need another like five

45:48

to seven days.

45:49

Well, you know, one.

45:50

Thing I noticed I was looking into some

45:53

of this stuff was reports

45:55

of people saying that they don't think fruit smells

45:57

anyway anymore. And

45:59

I think that is directly

46:02

as a result because Matt, you had mentioned the ethylene

46:04

that was naturally produced and the ripeness and the entropy

46:07

and all that. That's where the smell comes from,

46:09

That's where the taste comes from. If these things are being

46:11

like artificiently ripe and somewhat,

46:14

which totally makes sense. They would feel and

46:16

react and smell and tastes differently,

46:19

have a different texture.

46:20

It's not cool.

46:22

Well, it is different. I

46:25

appreciate the point you're making there. Know about

46:27

the smell versus

46:30

the I guess, the

46:32

mass market smell versus the

46:34

farmer's market smell. That's

46:36

something a lot of people in the US can

46:39

differentiate from.

46:40

Well, yeah, because the ethylene is the thing that makes

46:42

it right. Well, we just talked about like that smell

46:44

comes directly from the breakdown, and

46:46

if the inside being broke down

46:49

down.

46:49

Then it's going to get a smell.

46:51

Yeah, it's

46:53

fixing the outside of the house without

46:56

repairing the interior. That's

46:58

what's happening. And we see

47:00

Also this is pro tip by

47:02

the way, a fellow conspiracy realist, this

47:05

is why you can accelerate the ripening

47:07

of another fruit by sticking

47:09

it in a paper bag with a

47:11

banana. Tomatoes also

47:14

exhibit a lot of eminy, I

47:16

should say a lot of ethlenes.

47:19

So you can put a tomato,

47:21

buy something, and it will ripe

47:24

in more quickly. If you have bananas

47:26

that seem to be going bad at a cartoonish

47:29

rate, you might have some tomatoes,

47:31

buy them. Just check on that part. It's

47:35

true, it's a pro tip. But scientists

47:38

have known about this mechanism

47:40

for more than I guess, technically

47:42

in the West more than a century, but I

47:45

would say more than

47:48

several thousand years because

47:50

people figure this out pretty quickly.

47:53

The produce industry has leveraged

47:55

this in fascinating problematic

47:58

ways. We always say it here

48:01

in English, one bad apple.

48:03

It turns out the one over ripe

48:06

apple emitting a lot

48:08

of this gas.

48:10

That's what spoils the bunch.

48:11

That's what that's what's happening. There

48:13

is science behind it.

48:16

Love that did not know. I was today years

48:18

old.

48:18

I didn't know the banana trick either, Ben, But that's this

48:21

is all good info. But man, I

48:25

we talk a lot too about, like you know, artificially

48:29

engineered seeds and things

48:31

like that, and this just feels like an

48:33

extension of that, you know, and like you

48:35

know, the idea is it's not in

48:38

the best interest of these

48:40

big corporations for the fruit and

48:42

the vegetables to be in

48:44

their most natural state, because their priorities

48:47

are more in how long can we hold onto

48:49

these before we have to cut our losses.

48:52

Now that's a big deal. I always think about that when I go into a grocery

48:54

store.

48:54

I'm like, how is this giant pile

48:57

of avocados not just rotting?

48:59

You know?

49:00

And sometimes they are, And I wonder what the

49:02

spoilage rate for things like that are. And they're

49:04

obviously people crunching numbers that are trying to

49:06

increase those stats in their to

49:08

their benefit.

49:09

Because I want to bring up one other way

49:11

that fruit can be artificially

49:13

ripened. So say you you

49:16

ship some stuff from Ecuador, it gets to

49:18

the United States, gets to a

49:20

shipping facility, and it's not ripe

49:22

yet, it's not ready to go out. Another way

49:25

to do it is to use calcium carbide,

49:27

which it produces essentially a

49:29

similar gas, not the same type of gas.

49:32

I think it's called acetylene gas.

49:34

It's kind of like ethylene gas,

49:36

but not quite the same. And what goes

49:39

in welding torches, Yes, yes,

49:41

crash the job, but

49:44

use of it for this process has

49:46

been banned at least in the United States and

49:49

in several other countries, but not in some

49:51

uh. And it does the same exact thing where

49:53

you get that exterior ripening, but the

49:56

interior just isn't ready yet.

49:58

And it's important that we we mentioned

50:00

this because so much goes

50:02

into the stuff that you run into

50:05

in your grocery store, folks. Perhaps

50:07

one of the most dangerous conspiracies

50:11

is this. There is a concerted

50:14

effort afoot to make

50:16

sure that you ignore the

50:18

human cost of growing

50:20

these things, of bringing them

50:23

to you across the planet

50:26

out of season in season.

50:29

There is no proving conspiracy

50:32

on the behalf of appeal or epipeal

50:35

to sterilize people. There's

50:37

no conspiracy to make

50:39

you dumber other

50:41

than the conspiracy

50:44

that already existed, which

50:46

is to make you ignore the human cost

50:49

of these violent ends.

50:51

Here here, And I think we

50:53

maybe didn't mention one of the more

50:56

I don't know easily dismissable.

50:58

I think one could argue TikTok conspiracy

51:01

theories here. The actual like,

51:04

this is a piece of fruit that is

51:06

fully made of some sort of

51:09

polymer, and people, you know, there are

51:11

videos of people like saying, look, I found

51:13

this plastic piece of fruit

51:15

in my order from the grocery store.

51:17

Though I don't know, maybe it

51:20

happens, maybe some slip in. I don't think there's

51:22

a concerted effort for this, But what do you guys.

51:24

Think, What does it taste like?

51:26

The rubber? There are allegations

51:28

that bananas, watermelons,

51:31

a bunch of other types of fruits show up,

51:33

people cut into them and show on these

51:35

you know, TikTok or Instagram videos whatever it is

51:38

cutting into the thing, and it does look like

51:40

the meat of the watermelon is made

51:43

of something else, or it is watermelon

51:45

like and it's the right color, but it's not the right

51:47

texture. And I would

51:50

pause it that these artificial

51:52

ripening techniques are one of the reasons

51:54

that we are seeing an uptick in that kind

51:56

of thing where that banana is

51:59

not ready to eat for like a week or

52:01

two. It wasn't ready to even be picked off of

52:03

the banana plant yet, but

52:05

the company needed to get that shipment

52:07

out or else there's not going to be

52:09

enough stuff on the store shelves.

52:12

Well, I say this is a perfect example of that.

52:14

This is the truth behind on the

52:16

surface is just this easily clickable

52:18

conspiracy theory, the idea that the fruit

52:20

manufacturers are replacing the fruit.

52:22

With fake fruit.

52:24

That you know, it's much deeper

52:26

and more specific than that, and rooted

52:28

in the manufacturing process. But I don't think

52:31

that dole are shipping out prop

52:33

bananas.

52:34

No, why would they. They'll

52:36

just buy another country or

52:39

overthrow a government.

52:40

One other minor angle when it comes

52:42

to that specific conspiracy theory isn't

52:45

really related, but I think we should

52:47

at least mention it here. And that is

52:50

the fact that produce shipments coming

52:52

in to the United States, so produce

52:54

that the United States is importing are

52:57

more and more being used by cartels

52:59

and other organizations to ship

53:02

narcotics.

53:03

Speaking of watermelons, yeah.

53:05

Well yeah, well, watermelons, green

53:08

beans, celery squash,

53:10

holapanio paste, sugar,

53:13

bananas. Really

53:14

literally think of a shipment

53:17

of produce, and there have been narcotics

53:19

in vast quantities sent

53:21

over in shipments of this, sometimes

53:25

packaged separately, sometimes

53:28

in the vats of jalapeno paste, like we're

53:30

talking bricks of methamphetamine, and

53:32

you know, giant bags of

53:35

fentanyl or cocaine

53:37

that has been made to look

53:40

like watermelons, like fake

53:42

paper watermelons.

53:43

It's comical looking. I'm looking at the pictures right

53:46

now. They look like they're paper maches.

53:47

Do you guys want to know one that didn't make the

53:49

news. Yeah, flower bulbs.

53:53

There's a there's a huge, huge

53:55

trade for flowers. The

53:58

floral industry in the

54:01

United States gets a lot of stuff

54:03

from South and Central America. So

54:06

wow, the you could bust,

54:09

Well, you could if

54:11

you were a villain, move things via

54:14

flower bulb shipments because

54:16

it was supposed to be fresh, meaning

54:19

they get some expedited chipping.

54:22

A couple of people got caught.

54:24

Wow.

54:25

Well, I'll give you an example from Atlanta

54:28

from August thirteenth of this year, twenty

54:30

twenty four, there was a

54:33

huge shipment of celery that was going to

54:35

a place called what is

54:37

it Atlanta State Farmers Market in Forestworth

54:40

Park.

54:41

Yeah, and you mentioned this on Strange News.

54:43

Oh perfect. It was

54:45

methamphetamine and it was packaged

54:48

with the celery

54:50

just kind of in there, but it was separated

54:52

a little bit. The weird one

54:54

came when I think it was right

54:57

around that same time, August twenty second, twenty twenty

54:59

four, there was a

55:02

story about that the watermelons that were packaged

55:05

that were fake watermelons that had a bunch of drugs

55:07

in them, alongside regular

55:09

watermelons that were meant to go to the store. Now,

55:12

in both of those cases. Unfortunately,

55:15

the real fruits had to get thrown away because they were

55:17

potentially contaminated right by whoever

55:19

was packaging those drugs. But

55:22

I don't think I

55:24

don't think this would explain fake looking

55:27

tasting or fake textured

55:29

fruit. I don't think so, unless

55:32

there are like fake bananas

55:35

that came through with a shipment along

55:37

with the real bananas, and the fake ones

55:39

were used to hide the drug shipment that

55:41

went past you know, customs or something,

55:44

and then somehow accidentally one

55:46

of those a couple of crates

55:49

of fake bananas got in with the real ones. But I

55:51

don't think that happened.

55:53

Aren't they like customs stickers

55:55

like on those fake watermelons, or there's

55:57

like tape wrapped around them?

55:58

Is that real? Or is that? Like? Man,

56:01

is that fake too? Like?

56:02

I obviously made it pretty far through

56:04

the the you know, the whole inspection

56:07

process.

56:08

Oh yeah, let's do it this way. Have

56:10

you ever eaten a banana only to

56:12

find that it was methamphetamine? If

56:14

so, write to us Illumination

56:17

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56:20

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56:24

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