Let's Ask Marion: Are Frito-Lay’s Solar-Powered Sun Chips A Bright Idea?

(With a click of her mouse, EatingLiberally’s kat corners Dr. Marion Nestle, NYU professor of nutrition and author of Food Politics and What to Eat:)

Kat: Frito-Lay’s commemorating this Earth Day, April 22nd, by launching a solar-powered snack food factory in Modesto, California. “A football stadium-sized farm of solar collectors” will start harnessing the sun’s energy to produce the company’s corn-based multigrain SunChips, according to the Modesto Bee.

The project, which called for a “significant” investment on the part of Pepsi-co-owned Frito Lay, was a collaboration with the California Energy Commission, which hopes to showcase Central California’s potential to be a leader in the use of solar-powered farms for manufacturing. And Frito-Lay is laying out another big chunk of change for the obligatory ad campaign to trumpet its solar-powered snack food.

Since America's hooked on salty, crunchy chips, Big Food will keep cranking them out--as long as Agribiz has the petroleum, chemicals, land, and water to keep growing corn for dubious "foods," along with boneheaded biofuels. So, given that reality, should we celebrate the arrival of the pseudo-carbon-neutral empty carb? Or is this just one more case of a corporation putting the “con” in “conservation”?

Dr. Nestle: I hadn’t heard of this but your question reminds me of its food equivalent: Is a better-for-you junk food a good choice? Just because it’s a little bit healthier, does that make it good? Let’s hand it to PepsiCo (Frito Lay’s parent company) for once again getting ahead of the pack in promoting itself as green as well as healthy. PepsiCo was first to get rid of trans fats, and first to self-endorse its “better-for-you” options for snack foods and drinks. It is now trying to position itself as a wellness company, and green to boot. Alas, I can’t help but see this as much more about marketing than about health or environmental sustainability.

If PepsiCo was really serious about health issues it would stop marketing junk foods to kids and stop marketing junk foods in developing countries. I was in India last fall and could not believe how Frito Lay chips managed to be for sale everywhere—even in the most remote villages where nothing else was available. PepsiCo has a truly awe-inspiring distribution system. If PepsiCo was really serious about environmental issues, it would stop wasting the planet’s resources on junk foods altogether and would stop selling tap water in plastic bottles. And I’d love to see it stop marketing to kids too, but that’s another matter.