GMO foods.

[iguana_tonante]

He's mine! Mine! Mine!

[Locutus of Bored]

thestrangledcorpse wrote:

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^Will you marry me?

iguana_tonante wrote:

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He's mine! Mine! Mine!

[iguana_tonante]

To give a slightly more serious answer: It's legitimate to be cautious about GMO, and it's healthy to be be suspicious about corporate interests. However, I see very little evidence of both in the OP, just hysteria and scaremongering.

Oh, and this:

The Castellan wrote:

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I don't go to drug stores. When I am sick, I head to my herb garden, or use wholesome food, you'll be amazed just how good nature can be if you give it a chance.

is just crap. Tell me about it the next time you catch anything worse than seasonal flu. You'll be crying at your pharmacist's door in no time.

[thestrangequark]

^Indeed. The Naturalistic Fallacy is responsible for not just idiocy, but death when it comes to medicine.

[Locutus of Bored]

I'm curious about what this means:

The Castellan wrote:

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Hence why I only buy my food from the outer most walls of the stores.

Do you think they're irradiating the foods at the store itself from some centralized source? Or do you think the irradiated foods are all housed at the center of the store and the radiation affects everything around them?

I guess it could explain that three-armed kid at the checkout. Fastest grocery bagger I've ever seen.

[sojourner]

^It does explain why the Twinkies always seem to be near the center of the store.

[gturner]

^ You're suggesting the center-of-the-store theory came from The Simpsons?

[Grey]

Really, I support as much information as possible about what we consume being made available to us.

I'm not going to say I'd never eat GMO foods (I do all the time, sine it's what is available to me) but I'd at least like to know what my options are and what's going on with the food I eat.

The other thing I'd like to see is straightforward labeling with regards to "natural" vs "frankenfood." Never going to happen; as long as lobbyists can get away with it the definitions of those words will always bend.

I'm still absolutely in support of GMO labeling, though.

[scotpens]

gturner wrote:

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Well, there are labeling changes that I'd also like to see.

Some of them are:

1) How much artificial irrigation was used to produce the product, perhaps in liters/kg of food or liters/calorie.

1a) How much irrigation was used as a percentage of total water that grew the product (vs. rainfall)

1b) How much irrigation was used compared to the region's available water resources.

1c) How much irrigation was used compared to seasonal availability of water (was it grown during a monsoon versus a drought).

1d) How much irrigation was from depleted aquifiers versus runoff in streams and rivers, and how much, if any, was from desalination plants.

1e) How much irrigation was from artificial dams, and how much electricity did these produce as a byproduct?

1f) How much CO2 was emitted to power the irrigation system, and what was the energy breakdown of solar, wind, hydro, natural gas, coal, and nuclear.

1g) What is the deuterium and oxygen-18 isotope ratios in the irrigation water used.

1h) Did any of the water come from rivers containing endanged or threatened species.

Of course 1a through 1h would need to be broken down by constituent ingredients.

2) Similar to 1, but focused on other inputs, primarily fertilizers.

3) Similar to 1, but focused on herbicides, along with a much more detailed environmental impact statement.

4) Similar to 1, but focused on pesticides, along with the EIS.

5) Similar to 1, but focused on the control of pests like rabbits and birds, along with the EIS.

6) Chemical analysis: How much natural cyanide, pseudo-estrogens, dioxins and trace carcinogens are in the product, broken down by type.

7) Elemental analysis.
How much mercury, chromium, vanadium, osmium, rhenium, and other heavy metals are in the product, and what valence states are they in.

8) Radioactive analysis.
How much uranium, thorium, polonium-210, cesium, strontium-90 and potassium-40 are in the product, and what is its radioactivity, both in raw units and human dose equivalents. Which of these elements are biologically active and become part of our tissues, versus being flushed straight through?

9) Supply chain analysis
9a) Which ingredients were grown in different countries, and what are those countries human development and freedom indexes.

9b) What was the average income of the farmers who grew the crops, in purchasing power parity.

9c) What was the financial position of the farmers, in terms of debt load owed to banks, outstanding loans, etc.

9d) What was the average income of the employees at the processing plants, and how does it compare to the CEO's of those processing plants.

9e) What were the average incomes of the packagers and distrubutors of the products, along with their CEO information.

9f) Which companies provided the seeds for the plants used, and what is their financial portfolio.

9g) What kind of licensing agreements, support agreements and contracts, and sales agreements were in place up and down the entire supply chain, from dirt to table?

9h) What kinds of political and charitable contributions were made by these companies, and made by the companies' employees.

9i) What is the religious and party breakdown of the people in the supply chains.

9j) Which people in the supply chain have criminal records that should be flagged for attention.

10) How much packaging was used for the product (obviously a lot given the size of this label) and how much of the package used recycled materials.

11) A breakdown of chemicals in the packaging materials, similar to the breakdown for the food ingredients.

12) A simple description of what the food tastes like, recommended serving temperature, suggested dishes, and the like.

13) Warnings about misuse of the food, and demographic groups who might take offense at being served the food. (ie. Catholics, Hindus, Muslims, Vegans, etc)

I also demand to know the breed of dairy cattle my milk came from, the conditions under which the animals were raised, and the individual name of each cow.

[RJDiogenes]

I want pedigree documentation along with my Cheeseburger. And I want fries with that.

[farmkid]

The Mediocre Pumpkin wrote:

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...Very worth reading, but long, so snip...

My thoughts exactly, but WAY more eloquently and completely stated than I could have. You're awesome.

My Son the Vampire wrote:

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I also demand to know the breed of dairy cattle my milk came from, the conditions under which the animals were raised, and the individual name of each cow.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ That represents Utopia to me.

I would also demand that my food remain uncooked. I want to experience all the germs and parasites that God intended me to experience.

[sojourner]

^Steak Tar Tar?

[thestrangequark]

^Tartare.





I read a good blog post discussing the naturalistic fallacy and the fact that "organic" (at least in the US) is basically a marketing term. What a grand marketing ploy it has been, too. Here's the post: The Organic False Dichotomy

[sojourner]

eh, the closest I've ever gotten to Tartare is my love for extra rare steaks.