8/1 I found a bug on the organic Raomain I bought from Trader Joe. Is is
still edible as raw salad? I know organic farming means not relying on
pesticide to kill of bugs but would there be a danger from parasites?
\_ TROLL ALERT, TROLL ALERT
\_ Eat the bug and like it! If necessary, you CAN be wormed.
\_ If this sort of stuff bothers you, you can buy kosher food.
Many people do, even if their religion does not require it. -- ilyas
\_ It's food. Food that is grown is grown outside. Insects and
animals live outside. Food that is grown outside will be touched
by insects and animals. That is the way the world is. Occasionally
one of those insects will make it into the packaging, especially
with leafy greens. Throw the bug away and wash the lettuce, problem
solved. Are you people really that removed from where your food
comes from? -aspo
\_ Aspo, no offense, but you are an idiot. What about greenhouse
grown food? Is that 'outside'? Get a clue.
\_ Um, yeah, uh, greenhouse grown food is grown in an anti-
septic foam nutrient solution. Food technicians in
Intel "bunny suits" meticulously pluck any alien life
forms from salad leaves, carefully brushing each leaf to
ensure a complete absence of unwanted bugs, weeds,
chemicals, or icky "dirt". -John
\_ If you knew how many bug bits are in every carton of fruit
juice, organic or no, you probably wouldn't be bothered by
this at all. Still, I think the whole organic thing is BS.
Genetically modified often means the plants have better natural
resistance to pests, so they can use fewer pesticides than
organic crops, not more. BTW, leafy stuff should be fine if
you wash it. Sprouts, broccoli, etc, is the kind of thing you
should cook.
\_ If the pests don't even want to eat them, do you?
\_ I don't think you know what 'organic' means. The federal
standard provides that the food is produced without
pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, irraditation, or
bioengineering.
\_ While most organic farming is bs, there is one aspect in
which genetically modified crops are worse. Many gm grains
do not produce seeds that can be reused for the next growing
season which means that farmers must purchase new seeds
every year rather than simply take seeds from the last
harvest. The fact that farmers are beholden to ADM or some
other large conglomerate is worrying, but the main problem
is that by moving the natural selection process for grain
from the wild to the lab, we can make the grains less
able to cope with new forms of pests and infection.
There is another lesser concern with gm crops for some
peta/vegans, and that is crops which include animal genes
might violate their no exploting animals principle.
\_ There are no crops for consumption that I'm aware of
that contain animal genes. When I've done work with
animal genes in plants, it's been as a research tool,
it serves no purpose to put an animal gene into a
plant for crop use.
\_ There's a strawberry which contains a protein from a fish
which makes them resistant to freezing (natural antifreeze)
I don't think it's been approved for human consumption,
though.
\_ http://www.geo-pie.cornell.edu/media/fishberries.html
\_ What about crops which are more resistant to herbicides
which encourage farmers to apply more weedkiller?
\_ Oh, and it's especially cute when the crop in question can
interbreed with wild varieties and give them herbicidal
resistance too.
\_ I think anyone who's done farming knows that it's always
better to try and use the minimal amount of chemicals.
The best way to do that, ultimately, will be with GM
crops, not organic. Besides which, organic crops alone
cannot produce enough yield to feed our population,
so unless 2 billion people volunteer to not eat in the
future, or environmentalists agree to start letting
us convert forests to farm land, then GM crops are the
only option. Besides, everything is genetically
modified, it's just that in the lab we can do it more
efficiently.
\_ You're not too bright are you? Just by switching from
slash and burn to organized agriculture I am sure we
could produce enough food. There isn't a shortage of
food in the world and this is not because of
pesticides. There's plenty of arable land left unused.
\_ You should read the Skeptical Environmentalist. He
makes it quite clear that by properly farming the
land already converted for agriculture use we could
easily feed the entire planet (even if the population
continues to increase). GM isn't really needed and
in the case of grains with the "terminator" gene,
it will actually make things worse since subsistence
farming will stop being the strong cheap source of
food for the developing world. |