I realize the article is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there's a point that's glossed over that deserves more attention. Yes, not all Annie's products are organic, and they're not all whole grain. But Annie's Organic Whole Wheat Shells & Cheddar sure is exactly what it claims to be. Kraft (remember the title of the article?) offers nothing like that, even in their "Back-to-Nature" brand.

..written by this pompous windbag. Maybe she will expose Ben and Jerry's ice cream for being incredibly unhealthy! Or tell us that raw sugar is actually as bad for us as refined!! Or, NEWSFLASH, she will tell us that free trade coffee is crushing small growers.

I'm surprised that she can see the screen to type this stuff, looking down her nose at everything like that.

My grocery store - like most - now features a Natural Food Aisle for Concerned, Afluent Progressives. The floor tiles in that section are made of some kind of highly polished wood, and you can get conflict-free frozen eggrolls there.

That isn't where Annie's is shelved. It lives next to the standard Mac 'n Cheese and Ramen Noodles in the Reactionary Proletariat Aisle. The floor tiles are made of some kind of NASA material, to resist frequent tantrum-related spills.

Reading this aisle made me confront the fact that I buy freedom from guilt by paying a third more for food. Now that I think about it, nowhere on the Annie's box does it say "this is good for you." Yet tricky peacenik associations and a hectic schedule made me file all her products under a vague "good" label. And isn't that kind of sinister?

I had no idea Annie's was the Smartfood woman. She made it big by calling popcorn it "Smart," other popcorn must be stupid, right? Subconscious "health" feelings swirl around her products. Ever read the fat content on that small bag? It's amazing... and it contains 2 servings.

It's time for some counterprogramming. Who'd eat O'Reilly Os?

If there was ever a post that cried out for a big-boned kid to scream about "goddamn hippies," this was it. And never with better justification.

For the record, quite often I eat Kraft's, a.k.a. America's Favorite Poverty Food. There are simple ways to make it taste better: use sour cream instead of the milk and butter, mix in a pouch of sweet 'n' sour tuna fish for a quick meal with nutrition, season with Mrs. Dash. I also make homemade cheese sauce; if I want to make my own stuff, I'll avoid the canned sauce, thank you.

But really. Is this outfit trying to tell us that "no bunnies were killed in the making of this product"? There is so much fraud in the "natural" food business that selling crack cocaine in schoolyards looks honorable by comparison. It's the conjunction of several terrible trends; fear of corporate power, fear of food processing, fear of being un-trendy, and perhaps most important, fear of being considered an ordinary person. That this business is driven by fear should be proof that Republicans aren't the only people using terror for monetary advantage.

The biggest gangsters in this business are the wholesalers, or the "pushers," like Whole Foods. The food they sell is no different than the stuff at a supermarket chain, only it's got pretty yuppie packaging and a much higher price. On the West Coast I found a place called Traitor Vic's or something like that, which has more moderate prices, but whose stuff resembles traditional supermarket stuff even more - but, of course, not their prices.

For my part, I mourn the fact that Kraft no longer sells the powdered "American cheese food" in shakers next to their Parmesian cheese. That makes it impossible to make quick cheese meals, including (yes) cheese popcorn. Melting slices of Kraft cheese over popcorn in the microwave doesn't have the same elegance, and it burns your fingers.

Annie's has it, and so does Kraft: http://www.amazon.com/Kraft-Organic-Macaroni-Cheese-Cheddar/dp/B000JOW7O4

If my cheeks are red it's only because of all the wine I downed while microwaving little Rebekka's mac and cheese.

That 'white sauce' recipe lacks the cheese in the ingredient list. Flour sauce, not so good.

It's just a pseudonym. He's testing his "The Readers Strike Back" theory.... This article certainly seems to be written to be inflamatory. "Harried, organo-hipsters"? How 'bout snarky, journo-hipsters just dying to burst our recycled, green bubbles? ;)

(Just kidding Anastacia. If that is your name... ;)

Hey - a few things:

1 - Yeah, no kidding, mac and cheese is not really good for you

2 - Yeah, marketers get people to buy the same (or almost the same) stuff for more money. It happens all the time, everywhere and it certainly isn't a big surprise. I bet half the micro-brew beers in the US come from the same vats as Coors and Bud... ;)

3 - Homemade Mac and Cheese rocks! You can also add onion or garlic powder for a quick dash of zest. And there are so many cheeses to try!!! Eg. a mixture of Gruyere and Cheddar cheese. Mmm.... But you definitely need to THICKEN. Use flour or even cornstarch paste.

4 - Harried "organo-hipsters" (why do I find that so offensive? Because I am one?!?! ;) can make Annie's more "wholesome" and "rounded" by throwing in some frozen vegetables. Easy-peasy.

Try Reese White Cheddar Cheesoning for your popcorn. Mmm, mmm, good.

Great to know the background here on Annie's, hope you can do the same for other products that stock the shelves of the healthier food stores; also, kudos on writing style.

I think the "white sauce" recipe was given as a base to be used in conjunction with the grated cheese mentioned above. Read the part about the white sauce and you'll get the inference.

But still, this is funny... "Flour sauce, not so good."

I thought we'd run her off. Damn.

This article is silly and too long. It trips up on itself by trying to be witty and self-deprecating but the joke ends up on the author. It's not the snappy or funny piece it aspires to be because it can't make up its mind about where it's going -- it suggests too often that some vaguely serious investigation is about to transpire, and then all we get is another damn "whaddya think guys?" question. Three pages to, uh, expose the evil corporate Annie and admonish the naive parents who fall for her tricky ways? Seriously, I felt embarrassed reading this piece, it was so much like earnest bad teenage poetry.

But enough bitching about the author and her aspirations to badgirlhood. Who edits these things? Who accepts the submissions? How did this pitch get past the interns? If I keep using question marks, just like the author, will my letter get that special Salon seal of approval, an Editors' Choice star? C'mon guys, tell me I'm a funny bad girl, too!