The plane or the pilot? April, 10 2006

It’s 4:30 on a Friday afternoon at LAX. I’m waiting for my flight to San Francisco to board. A group of five-year-old kids wearing i-pod headphones is singing out of key and out of synch. People wait, looking annoyed, talking on cell phones, sighing heavily. I just finished attending a great two-day conference on creating healthy communities at the California Endowment. Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, was one of the speakers. As I sit here and write this, his words about unhealthy food in America echo in my head as the smell of the airport McDonald’s wafts around me. There was much discussion at the conference about how to help people be healthier. It always surprises me how polarizing a concept this is in our culture and media. Depending on who and where you read it, you can find arguments that place the responsibility on individuals or the burden on society.

Both of these arguments, at their extremes, seem overly simplistic and academic to me. It’s kind of like saying, flying isn’t about the pilot, it’s about the plane. Of course, if you didn’t have both working together, you wouldn’t be flying. I know that if you are reading this, you get our fruit, and if that is the case you most likely (I hope) find value in creating a work culture that supports health. I’ve talked to some of our clients who do all sorts of things to help motivate employees to be healthier. I’m interested in continuing to gather information on what companies are doing (besides FruitGuys fruit in the office) to help create healthy worksites that inspire individuals to be healthy. I’d love to hear from you about how your business (or others that you know of) addresses this. What do you think a healthy workplace should contain? If you’d like to chat about it via email or you have thoughts you’d like to share, please feel free share them via email! Thanks in advance for your ideas!

YA-YA for the Yali Pear!

In southern Indian mythical art, the Yali is a creature with the body of a lion and the tusks of an elephant. Although the Indian version of Yali sounds frightening, the Chinese fruit version is much more delicate. Jeff, our distribution manager, describes eating a Yali pear like this: “It is the lightest Asian pear, crispy but not crunchy, extremely juicy, not watered down but as a cool refreshing drink. The smooth pale skin has a hint of clover and soft ends of honeysuckle. It’s like drinking white tea-calm and mild. It is a quiet field-mouse walking lightly over a fresh snowfall.” The poet has spoken.

Enjoy and be fruitful!- Chris Mittelstaedt chiefbanana@fruitguys.com