YoCrunch? Not so much...

Today, I decided to start my lovely day off to a "healthy" start with a YoCrunch yogurt. It was a strawberry yogurt with a granola mix-in. I thought it might be interesting to see where something as common as yogurt comes from. I was extremely surprised to see that the actual yogurt contained ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, Bifidus, L. acidophilus, and suspiciously sounding "natural flavors." What are these flavors, and if they are so natural, why doesn't Breyers (the makers of YoCrunch yogurt) tell the consumer what these flavors are? The granola had ingredients such as dextrose and soy "lecithin." YoCrunch claims to make "quality" products, but high fructose corn syrup and lecithin doesn't sound so high-quality, now, does it?

My yogurt was manufactured at Breyers Yogurt Company, in Naugatuck, Connecticut. It traveled about 615.6 miles to get to Elon. In a standard hybrid car, with gas at $2.79 per gallon and the car getting about 50 miles to the gallon, it would cost a little over $34.32. Thirty-four dollars for my $1 yogurt! Keeping in mind the video we watched today in class, it seems that $33 of labor is lost somewhere in between the making, packaging, and shipping of the yogurt. Unfortunately, making yogurt would take a lot of time, especially for a college student. Interesting how much we pay for "Bifidus" and "dextrose," not to mention the preservatives probably in the yogurt to have it shipped all the way here, keep its shelf life, and last in our refrigerators. $34 for one yogurt. All because of convenience. Good morning, America.

-Genevieve D'Cruz