A guy by the name of B. W. Carlin uses his Twitter account for a lot of wild and wacky stunts, but one that recently got more than 23,000 followers talking was a totally pointless and downright silly one which also managed to promote food wastage. Go figure…
Fresh Fruits and Vegetables are among the most wasted foods on our menu
today. We’ve certainly got better things to do with them than
see which one we can throw the farthest!
So… Carlin asked, innocently enough, what Fruit his followers thought they could throw the farthest:
“What fruit/vegetable do you think you could throw the farthest? I think my answer is an avocado. Apple is close, but the slip factor is too high. I think I could absolutely GUN an avocado.”
He followed up with:
“I could throw this a mile and a half.” Accompanied with a photo of an Avocado in someone else’s hand. (He ripped it off the Internet, without citing the owner’s copyright. Bad! Bad Carlin!)
Then the responses started to roll in…
Armen replied:
“An apricot is, mathematically speaking, the most aerodynamic fruit. so ill say an apricot.”
Lucas Warn challenged Armen:
“I feel like the hairs have the potential for a little drag but the kiwi is the correct answer here. The grip plus a smaller size.”
Nic Bell proposed:
“I’m going orange, has good weight, good texture, and the same basic size as a baseball.”
Tom Petrini offered:
“Orange is a good answer but imma go with an onion. Roughly the same size, but with a bit more weight to it.” Score 1 for the Veggies.
Then Gerry Logan weighed in:
“The obvious answer is pomegranate.” So there!
…And Carling couldn’t resist interjecting:
“G** d***** I think I have to go buy a bunch of fruit and vegetables and go to the softball field near my apartment to test this out when the weather gets nicer.”
After that things just got crazy…
Jordan Heck speculated:
“If you threw a banana would it just fly back like a boomerang.”
Patrick O’Rourke topped them all:
“Breadfruit all day, everyday!” Because he says so.
Setting aside matters of aerodynamics…
… And weight-to-size ratios, I will note that Carlin’s Tweet generated dozens of replies, some arguments bordering on real science and others (like Mr. Breadfruit’s) bordering on the ridiculous. If Carlin’s main reason for operating a Twitter account is to draw attention to himself, he certainly succeeded with this post. It never fails to astonish me how many people will take the time and go to the trouble to participate in crazy forums like these. But that’s not my main reason for writing about Carlin’s Tweet.
Food waste is a real, serious problem
Canada is just a tenth the size of the U.S., population-wise; we have 34 million people and the U.S. has something like 340 million. So, when I tell you that the current level of food waste in Canada is over $30 billion a year, you can imagine what the figure adds up to in the States.
I take grave exception to Carlin’s off-hand, nonsensical Twitter romp, on the grounds that it has probably incited his followers to go out and try throwing different Fresh Fruits and Veggies – total, wanton waste of food group the current Canada’s Food Guide and other national dietary guideline documents identify as the most valuable nutritionally.
Food waste is not a joke, Carlin! And hope you and your followers will think twice before embarking on a stunt like the post in question again.
~ Maggie J.