Latest / INSIGHT OUT / Florida Stayed Red, But Barely | The InSight Out Show | Ep. 147

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Florida Stayed Red, But Barely | The InSight Out Show | Ep. 147 · INSIGHT OUT

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  The InSight Out Show.
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  Faith that changes how you live.
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  Welcome to the InSight Out Show.
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  I'm Devin Almonte, and together we are learning to see the world
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  through God's eyes and doing our best to live that out in our every day.
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  On Thursdays here, we take a look at three stories that are shaping our
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  world, the funny, the feel-good, the frustrating, and the faith-enhancing.
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  It's a bit of faith, culture, real life, all delivered with warmth,
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  clarity, and a bit of humor.
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  We'd also love to invite you to partner with InSight Out Media.
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  This is our Christian media nonprofit behind the show.
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  Even at $5 a month, your tax-deductible support directly funds new content,
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  supports our contributors, and powers our community initiatives.
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  Visit insightoutmedia.org to see our mission in action and to make a donation.
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  Thank you so much for that.
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  All right, well, coming up, those biodegradable takeout containers that
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  we're buying because they're supposed to be the better option, a new study
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  found that's not exactly the case.
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  And wait until you hear what could be happening to our bottled water
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  that is sitting out in the heat.
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  Then Canada is running low on its strategic maple syrup reserve.
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  Yes, that is a real thing, and now investigators have uncovered
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  maple syrup being sold as 100% pure that wasn't even close to that.
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  A little fraud action going on there.
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  And finally, Florida stayed red on Tuesday, but the governor's race
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  was a lot closer than expected.
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  We'll get into that and why I'm starting to think some of our biggest problems
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  aren't necessarily with the state of the world, but with where our heads are.
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  Let's get into today's three stories.
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  How many of us have a kitchen cabinet that is full of those black
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  plastic Chinese takeout containers?
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  We wash them out, we stack them up, we reuse them.
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  Maybe that is not you, and you have switched to the biodegradable
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  takeout container, the ones that are marketed as the greener, healthier
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  option for you and the planet.
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  Well, those aren't automatically better either.
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  In a recent study, certain biodegradable plastics released about 10 times more
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  microplastic particles and twice as many nanoplastics as the conventional plastics.
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  They figured this out under simulated takeout conditions, however they measure
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  this, meaning researchers, they're trying to recreate what happens to food in
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  a takeout container during normal use.
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  So 10 times more microplastic particles.
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  So much for assuming that greener means better.
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  So let's say that neither of those options are you.
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  But what about bottled water?
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  Think about the big packs of water we see at sporting events, the cases that are
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  stacked up outside of schools or grocery stores, or the ones that we throw in the
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  back of the car before a soccer game.
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  Before that water reaches us, it has been on trucks, in warehouses,
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  on loading docks, in stores.
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  So my question is: how hot did it get along the way in this whole process?
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  This was back in July.
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  Reporters in South Korea found bottled water stacked outside of convenience
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  stores sitting in direct sunlight.
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  And so they ended up measuring this.
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  They had a thermal camera measure the surface temperature,
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  which was about 115 degrees.
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  South Korea has been investigating this for years, and in some of these
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  earlier government tests, they found that these bottles of water released
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  a lot of chemicals into the water.
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  Some of the measurements exceeded national drinking level standards.
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  Then moving to the University of Nebraska, researchers there
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  tested eight bottled water brands.
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  They combined 140-degree heat with mechanical shaking.
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  They did this for 12 hours, and under those conditions, some
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  water samples had nine times the concentration of nanoplastic
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  particles than when they started.
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  All that said, that doesn't mean that every bottle is dangerous.
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  At least that's what they tell us.
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  Of course, there are growing health concerns over this.
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  One study linked that to plaque with higher rates of heart
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  attacks, strokes, and death.
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  Of course, it doesn't prove that the particles cause those problems, and the
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  FDA says that current evidence hasn't demonstrated that the levels found in
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  food and water pose a human health risk.
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  All very interesting.
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  Now going back to South Korea, they have tightened their storage rules.
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  They now require bottled water to be kept out of direct sunlight.
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  They require that it's protected when it's stored outdoors.
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  Businesses have two years to comply with that.
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  Here in the United States, bottled water generally travels without
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  refrigeration because it is shelf-stable.
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  The FDA regulates bottled water, but we don't have the same specific
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  national requirements for keeping it out of direct sunlight at stores.
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  I hope manufacturers and retailers are taking reasonable precautions here.
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  I, I would like to know a little more about that.
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  It's a little concerning.
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  I don't know if we do know more.
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  I mean, how long is this stuff sitting on a loading dock or in the truck
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  in the y- at the, at the warehouse?
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  What are stores doing to protect it, and should we be doing something more?
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  Now, I say all this as somebody who knows this information, and I will
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  still decide to microwave my coffee in the paper to-go cup because I
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  didn't feel like finding a mug.
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  And I know those paper cups are not meant for the microwave.
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  The lining in there, it can melt, and plastics, and the whole thing.
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  So I do the things that I know I shouldn't do.
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  Paul writes about this actually in Romans 7, about doing the
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  thing he doesn't wanna do.
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  "Why do I do the things I wish not to do?" Of course, he's talking about something
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  far more serious than coffee, but the, the core problem here is still the same.
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  We are going to have a lot of these risks in this fallen world.
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  We're not going to eliminate all of them.
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  We're not going to be good at avoiding all of them either.
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  It's not to freak us out, but if we can do a little better for our bodies, which are
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  an incredible gift, then let's do better.
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  Let's expect companies to do better, too.
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  All right, well, we are moving on from South Korea.
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  Um, we are now headed to Canada.
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  Canada has a strategic maple syrup reserve, and I want you
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  to think about that a second.
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  We have emergency oil reserves.
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  Quebec has warehouses full of barrels of maple syrup just in case the
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  world has a maple syrup emergency.
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  So this October, Quebec's maple producers announced that their
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  reserve was completely sold out.
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  Americans are also a big reason demand has climbed.
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  US buyers stocked up last year worried about tariffs, and Quebec
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  syrup exports jumped nearly 16%.
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  About two-thirds of that go to the United States.
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  Apparently, we take our syrup seriously.
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  And this stuff is pretty valuable
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  Back in 2011 and 2012, thieves stole roughly $18 million worth of syrup
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  from a Quebec reserve warehouse.
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  An actual maple syrup heist.
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  Here's Global News reporting on this heist 13 years ago:
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  $18 million worth of maple syrup was stolen from a storage warehouse.
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  Mike Armstrong has the story.
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  Now, most of us think of maple syrup in small cans, but it can also be
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  stored in big ones and in big stacks.
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  Thousands of barrels were kept inside, sort of an insurance
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  policy against a bad year.
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  Well, this summer, the federation checked on them.
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  Some were missing, others were empty, and some were filled with water.
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  Someone had made off with 9,600 barrels of maple syrup.
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  Now we've got a new maple syrup mystery.
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  A Canadian journalist named Gaétan Pouliot noticed something was
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  off while he was eating pancakes.
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  The syrup tasted wrong, so he decided to investigate.
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  He bought five different cans of syrup.
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  They all came from the same exact producer in Quebec, they were officially stamped
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  and sold as 100% pure maple syrup.
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  He decided, "I am going to send these to a lab, check to see what's
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  going on." Lab results get back.
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  They showed that every single can was watered down or
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  blended with cheap cane sugar.
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  In fact, at least 50% of the sugar in those cans was regular
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  cane sugar, not real maple sap.
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  The producer, Steve Bourdeau, sold syrup through grocery
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  stores in Quebec and Ontario.
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  Sounds like he's going to be in a little bit of trouble.
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  We should probably pray for Steve.
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  Now pure maple syrup, by the way, it should be at least 66% sugar if
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  you're going to call it maple syrup.
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  This is kind of interesting.
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  A basic lab sugar test only measures how much sugar is in the can,
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  not where that sugar came from.
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  So if a producer like Steve decides to dilute the real maple syrup with cheap
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  cane sugar dissolved in water to reach that 66% mark, it will pass the test.
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  So that's some pretty tricky stuff going on there.
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  Thankfully, here in America, we don't really have this
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  problem with our own syrup.
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  Our own pancake syrup outside of, uh, Canadian imports doesn't have
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  any maple syrup in it to begin with.
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  All right, for our last story in the news round, uh, we're hitting
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  all different places today.
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  South Korea, Canada, now we're headed to Florida.
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  We always try to cover a local story here.
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  Florida stayed red on Tuesday, November 3rd, Republican Byron
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  Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly to become our next governor.
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  Donalds received just over 50% of the vote to Jolly's 48.7%.
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  Four years ago, Governor Ron DeSantis won re-election by more
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  than 19 points, and Republicans now outnumber Democrats by about a
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  million and a half registered voters.
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  Given all that, we might have expected to see a little bit more
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  breathing room between the two.
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  I don't know.
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  That's kinda what I was thinking.
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  I mean, there are plenty of ways to analyze the results.
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  You can go see what people are saying.
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  I don't think we can necessarily pinpoint that narrow margin
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  on any one issue necessarily.
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  But Floridians have a lot on their minds: insurance bills, housing prices,
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  property taxes, the pace of growth here.
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  Uh, voters also passed Amendment 3, giving qualifying homeowners a
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  bigger break on their property taxes.
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  That was a big one that definitely brought people out to the polls.
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  And I've been watching more post-election coverage than I probably should, and it's
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  at least opening my eyes to some things.
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  I think there's been some things that have been off for a
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  long time now, years actually.
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  It's not just happening in Florida, we're seeing this all over the country.
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  Sometimes I listen to candidates that are running for governor, mayor, or
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  other offices, it, it's so much of the conversation is about Washington
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  or who's fighting with whom, who's attacking whom, whatever the latest
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  political controversy happens to be.
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  But what about the job?
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  The actual job that we are electing this person to do.
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  So I put together a few clips.
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  Listen to what keeps coming up:
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  It's indicative, I think, of America, for those of you who are not American.
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  It gives you a sense of what we're up against, what's happening
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  across my country, and what happened here in, in Davos.
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  I was gonna speak last night.
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  It was a well-established event at the USA House.
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  After Trump's speech, they made sure that I didn't.
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  That's what's happening in the United States of America.
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  America in reverse.
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  I wanna thank President Trump for having the courage and the moral
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  clarity to fight for America and to fight against tyranny around the globe.
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  Even though we're gonna see what happens as Iran continues to
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  unfold, going down to Venezuela to get Maduro out of that country.
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  Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide
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  against the Palestinian people.
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  May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.
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  JD, habibi, there is this delicious irony in the fact that you're constitutionally
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  obligated to swear me in in January.
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  Donald, look, I, I know, you, you struggle with my name, so after JD
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  swears me in in January, you can just go on and call me Senator.
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  And please don't judge my editing here.
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  At some point I had enough of political speeches and videos.
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  I was just getting tired of pulling these clips the other night.
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  But I think it tells a little story.
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  El-Sayed was running for US Senate, so Washington is obviously part of his job.
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  But it's the constant back and forth that bothers me, the political jabs.
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  They're all doing it, both sides.
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  And sometimes it feels like they are more interested in fighting each other than
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  explaining what they're going to do for the people they're supposed to represent.
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  Byron Donalds addressed President Trump directly.
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  Fine, I get it.
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  Trump endorsed him
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  Mayor Mamdani is doing his thing like he's on a national stage
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  versus in the city of New York.
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  And these issues, I mean national issues, They do affect what's happening
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  locally, federal funding, immigration, the economy, these things all matter.
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  But how much of these political conversations are really about governing,
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  and how much is just taking sides in the latest fight that's going on nationally?
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  I mean, there's certainly an audience for it.
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  Just look at X or TikTok.
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  Pew Research found that 54% of Americans were highly interested
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  in presidential elections compared to just 34% in local elections.
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  And so I think we pay a lot more attention to the big national picture
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  that sometimes we forget what's happening right at home, right in our backyard.
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  And before social media, we couldn't do that as, uh, easily.
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  We didn't have a national stage to see everything that's going on
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  in our country and, and globally.
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  And so that's brought that right into our phones every single day to see everything
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  on such a global stage and national stage.
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  And so we're drawn to those things, and we're not going to
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  be drawn to, say, a local county commissioner who's discussing drainage
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  improvements on a local major road.
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  I mean, people aren't going to watch that.
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  But when the roads actually flood, then we're interested, and wh- which
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  is also now happening in Florida.
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  We've had so much rain and so much going on
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  I wish we could keep more of our local politics local.
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  These are decisions that are affecting our homes and neighborhoods, our
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  everyday lives, and if we're not paying attention to what is happening in our
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  own communities, how much good are we really doing arguing about everything
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  happening on a national level.
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  We're all guilty of this to some degree.
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  Um, picture your church.
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  We can follow some controversial issue with some pastor halfway across the
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  country while barely knowing what people in our own congregation are going through.
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  And pastors, pastors can get caught up in the online debates too, battle
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  of theological wit on social media while they're ignoring their flock.
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  And then in our own homes, we can spend an entire evening arguing with
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  strangers online about something totally irrelevant to our lives while our spouse
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  or our kids are sitting right beside us.
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  We could be investing that time in our families, and as believers, maybe
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  even opening the Bible together.
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  There's a nice idea.
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  Being informed matters, but knowing what's happening everywhere isn't
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  the same as paying attention to where we actually live.
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  So maybe we spend a little less time arguing about what politicians should be
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  doing and a little more time finding out what's happening in our own communities.
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  I mean, we can step up as a citizen first, not just of our country, but of
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  our neighborhood and our local town.
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  Who's making the decisions?
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  Where can we get involved?
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  What can we do to actually help improve things?
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  We shouldn't get so busy and wrapped up in that and what's happening across the
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  world and in our country that we forget to take care of our own little corner of it.
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  Some of those changes can start today.
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  All right, well, that is a wrap on today's news.
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  If the show brought you some clarity, warmth, or helped you look at something
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  a little bit differently this week, the best compliment you can give is sharing
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  this with somebody that you care about.
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  Don't forget, please follow and subscribe wherever you are listening or watching.
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  Leave a comment.
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  I do read them and do my best to respond as well.
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  My prayer is that this conversation helps us think more deeply, see more
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  clearly, and live more faithfully.
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  I'm
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  Devin Almonte.
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  Thanks for listening
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  and
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  Watching.
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  Now, let's live InSight Out.