In the ongoing descent of our culture into hi-tech savagery, I note the following:

Is it Real, Or Is it Senomyx? How New Flavor Technology Tinkers with Our Tastebuds

Ever wonder what flavor technology companies really do? Well you should because this time, they’ve decided to trick our tastebuds, and in turn our brains, into tasting something that isn’t necessarily there.

Sounds pretty perky, eh?  Another fun science article about those amazing wizards who make it possible for gluttonous Americans to have all the sensations of eating tasty goodness while not actually having to gain weight.  What’s their special secret?

UPDATE:  According to Lynn Stratton at Healthy Holistic Living: Fetuses.  Their “unique proprietary technologies” are “Embryonic kidney cells from aborted human fetuses.”  Stratton maintains that these are used as an ingredient, but a reader states:

This is absolutely NOT TRUE! At Children of God for Life we monitor the use of aborted fetal cell lines in vaccines, medical products, cosmetics and regular research. I have done the research on Senomyx and what they are doing is TESTING their food enhancers using aborted fetal cell line HEK-293 (human embryonic kidney, specimen 293)Yes - this is wrong and repulsive - not to mention unnecessary.  But the cell lines are NOT IN your food.  Mark Shea blew it on this one.

I bow to my reader’s superior knowledge.  Apparently, the giant corporations in question are merely using aborted fetuses, not actually feeding them to us.  It’s sort of like saying “The Commandant’s wife didn’t actually eat prisoners, she merely made lampshades out of their skin.”  Derive what consolation from that you will.

Me: I think that, once again, reader Barbara is vindicated.

Read the article to discover which giant corporations to boycott.