Organic. Look for the 9. I can’t find it. And why exactly would I want to?
Posted on January 27th, 2008 in food, goofiness
Where is the 9, exactly?
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I got this onion at the market today. I thought it was some kind of viral marketing, so obedient consumer that I am, I immediately Googled it with only one result.
Did you hear me? I Googled and got ONLY ONE RESULT!
Man alive, you can Google "spinach feta walrus dildo" and get 20 pages full of results — this actual printed sticker on my onion returns only one result?
And said page was quite frustrating, in that it implied that everybody who’s at all "green" knows about this mysterious 9 already, in which case, why isn’t it anywhere on the Internet? Am I the only one who thinks the whole thing smacks of Procter & Gamble being run by Satanists? There’s a "9" cult somewhere, and they’ve just been secretly instructed that their alien overlords are arriving in a week so they should stock up on onions or something.
So Google has failed me. Can anyone help?
Update on 1/28/2008: Sad to say, not only has this page been added to the Google results for “organic look for the 9, it’s actually replaced the page I’d found that at least said a little about it! So, if you arrived here looking for information about organic labeling — sorry. See what you can learn from the comments.
Yeah, I Twitter, don't laugh. 
January 27th, 2008 11:44 am
A Google search of one…sounds like a new army commercial.
I did come across this, which seems to be good info to have and I would assume is what your cryptic onion was referring to
January 27th, 2008 12:13 pm
Right, that’s exactly the link I found, too. The question is where exactly would I look for the 9, the 8, or the 84011?
January 27th, 2008 12:46 pm
The “9″ refers to the first digit of the PLU (product look-up number) that’s usually on a sticker attached to the produce or on a sign at the store.
If it’s not a 9, it’s not organic.
January 27th, 2008 1:29 pm
as the previous poster said, all organic produce has a PLU number that starts with a 9.
January 27th, 2008 1:32 pm
Ah, I see. Not at my store, it turns out — but anyway, it’s amazing that I was supposed to figure that out from that label!
Dd.
January 27th, 2008 4:27 pm
You’ll have to let us know how many Google search hits you get for “Look For the 9″ in the coming days.
January 27th, 2008 5:10 pm
Look for the 9…it’s a sign!!!
Well, probably not. But we could probably start a conspiracy theory or something. That would be fun.
January 27th, 2008 5:38 pm
They probably make it mysterious and ambiguous on purpose so that you spend countless nights pondering the question of the “9″, and then finally, in a burst of frustration and disgust, swear off organic altogether and buy the produce with the more explicit stickers, so that they can sell their genetically-modified, conventional produce to the masses, lining their pockets and cackling softly to themselves.
Or not.
(Okay, so I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist.)
January 27th, 2008 7:03 pm
I am so very out of the loop! I too have never heard of this mysterious “9″. I will have to keep an eye out!
January 28th, 2008 2:37 am
So you actually googled spinach feta walrus dildo?
I don’t care about the freaking onion, I just wanna know why you were googling that!!!
Oh and I had Krispy Kreme the other day and thought of you
January 28th, 2008 1:49 pm
Never heard of the 9, but thanks to commenters I now know secret.
January 28th, 2008 2:40 pm
Ooooh, I’ve always wanted to start a conspiracy theory! Snopes, I’m on my way!
Dd.
January 28th, 2008 8:50 pm
Are you sure it’s not a six?
If you buy three onions at the same time you’ll pass into another dimension, open a vortex and demons will rule the earth.
August 26th, 2008 5:22 pm
I just found this post via a Google search.
I have pretty decent hippie credentials (vegan, live in a co-op in Northern California, eat primarily local organic food) and I was just as clueless as you. I think it’s safe to say that this marketing campaign is coming from corporate America (ie Dole). It doesn’t seem like a grassroots thing, at least.
August 27th, 2008 12:39 am
I know. I’m not quite so hippieish as you, I think, although I try to be, y’know, conscientious. And my conclusion is that they’re trying to make sure no one gets out of the store with an organic peach at inorganic prices, since EVERY SINGLE PIECE now has a sticker on it — and a sticker, I should add, that’s pretty hard to get off before eating or composting.
Sigh.
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