Quote Of The Week

Freakin' brilliance.

Priceless.

No problem. Fewer humans is better for Gaia. All part of the Green plan, baby. Wait till people start dying from the cold in the UK. That won't be a problem either.

If there are too many people, why don't the enviros of the world volunteer to help alleviate the problem by offing themselves?
Oh... THEIR lives are too valuable. Off the others.

Yes. What are the chances of a next-day story on the CBC on "The Dangers of Organic Farming", like we saw for the oil spill and nuclear meltdown?

Quote of the flippin' year so far! Good on you kingfisher!

Oops, I promoted rich to king for his great line.

Organic farming obviously has unknown risks, that could threaten human lives. Shouldn't we apply the Precautionary Principle (you know, the one the environmentalists use to ban anything they dont like, using flimsy or non-existent evidence) to ban organic farming?

richfisher, take a bow. Don't hold your breath waiting for CBC or CTV and Global to inform their viewers.

A consensus of scientists now agree that organic farming is dangerous to public health.

Will they be closing all the organic farms in Germany? They are closing all the nuclear power plants in Germany which have killed none.

Yes, but zeh ver killed by organic means...

I think this happened in Salinas, California with e coli tainted spinach within the last two years as well.

So are we to conclude that industrial killing is bad, while 'organic' killing is okay?

And it will probably be twice as expensive as Fukushima to fix.

Don't get me wrong, I love organic and I remember back in the '60's when it was first popularized -- at least it was dirt cheap (no pun intended). Organic used to be the "poor man's" market 'cause it was so inexpensive compared to the grocery stores. The economics behind the savings were that costs were dramatically cut by not needing chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides.

But nowadays if you go downtown to the organic "Hippie Market" in Toronto you have to be a veritible millionaire to shop there -- one tomatoe costs $2.00 bucks! My gawd, I can buy an exotic fruit like a giant honey avocado from Costa Rica for less than that. Plus it has more vitamins and minerals than a tomatoe and it would last two sittings.

Tomatoes used to be so cheap that Hippies used to throw them at politicians. Not anymore -- not the organic ones anyway.

A dozen (12) eggs: $2.00 at the big grocers. One (1) tomatoe: $2.00 at the organic "hippie market" in T.O. At least the future of "egging" is not yet at risk.

Organic food is the 21st century panelling of the sixties, it's a fad thing our superior betters like to embrace.

If organic farming was a public danger non of us would be here. We are the descendants of successful organic farmers. Non-organic farming gradually developed after the second world war.

Bean sprouts, by their nature are more subject to contamination. Mass distribution simply spreads it farther when it happens.

Organic farming's best argument is financial. As it's a niche market it's demand provides a profit margin allowing small, medium sized farms to be viable. Niche markets are important for that reason. Small businesses exist exploiting them.

Ricardo, if I am going to spend two dollars on a tomato, it had better be the size of a watermelon. I won't even entertain the thought of buying a watermelon from these "hippie markets".

D'oh!!!

Osumashi Kinyobe at June 10, 2011 2:56 PM,

Don't forget that the non-organic stuff is overpriced too though: at my local "No Frills" a single (1) tomatoe costs .75 cents. But nobody notices because they are sold by the gram...
The fresh food industry is already in big trouble without forcing organics down everybody's throats.

And a single avocado from Mexico also costs .75 cents.

Something is out of whack.

I don't think that you can compare death as a result of nuclear radiation exposure versus as a result of food poisoning.

The first is gradual and slow; the latter has a rapid growth and takeover of the body.

Chernobyl had over 4,000 deaths. Only 47 were a direct result of the immediate accident; the others were due to radiation exposure - which affects the brain, heart, blood etc...

The Gulf Oil spill was not about human ingestion of the oil. Therefore, it too is not a valid comparision.

And the contamination of food has little to do with the method of its production. You can get food poisoning from any food that is, obviously, handled by humans in its picking and preparation - and we all know of cases in cafeterias, restaurants etc. You can get it from untreated water, from foods left out of the frig (organic or not organic)...and so on.

my organic produce comes from my very own backyard.

otoh squirrels took the entire strawberry crop.

is it still organic to shoot and eat squirrel meat? LOL !!!

You missed the point by a mile, ET.

QOTM. (Quote of the month)

don't worry ET, it happens to me all the time!

kkate - explain how I missed the point. When I saw that comment - I at first thought it was sarcasm. But, reading some of the other comments here....I began to wonder if the author actually meant it.

So- please explain. What have I missed?

ET

I believe the comment is tongue & cheek trying to shine a light on the media's lack of interest.

Furthermore, advocates for organic farming ignore the fact that modern farming feeds the world a healthy and cheap diet, and because so, hippies can focus on fringe markets with their organic farming. If the hippies had their way, the 3rd world would be starving today. Kate’s pointing-out the shear hypocrisy and disingenuousness of the Left and the Media. Organic farming is, and forevermore will be, for the rich; but will be touted by the Left as a savior for the poor people of the world. It’s disgusting quite frankly.

That said, I take your point.
JMO

So- please explain. What have I missed?
Posted by: ET at June 10, 2011 4:14 PM

Starting from when....? ;)

indiana homez - I haven't noticed the media's lack of interest. It's the opposite; it's in every newspaper online, it's on the TV news.

So- the media coverage can't be the point. That's why I've asked kate what she means by my missing the point.

As for organic farming produce being for the rich - well, a lot of it is indeed for the 'champagne socialists' who are being milked for a lot of money in these specialist stores (eg Whole Foods - whose prices are unreal). But, for others, who buy from the local farmers - this sustains those local farmers and I'm all for small local farms - and they don't charge the prices one sees in Whole Foods.

Most certainly I agree; the organic method can't produce foods in quantity for our population.

But both types can exist and there's no need to denigrate the one vs the other.

Fukushima qua nuclear accident killed precisely NOBODY. No-one. Not a single soul. All fatalities were either prompt (crane fell over, drowning etc.), or unrelated (guy has a heart attack which he could have had standing in line at the grocery store). More people died today on America's roads than have ever died in nuclear accidents, and that includes Chernobyl.

organic fertilizer = shit. End of story. And full explanation of why organic food is a natural source of E. coli.

An old line, worth repeating:

More people have died in Ted Kennedy's car than in Horth American commercial nuclear power accidents.

ET, the (BP) Gulf oil spill killed 11 people instantly in the fire resulting from the blow-out. Probably human error is the ultimate cause of the BP oil spill. Not sure what is the cause of the E. coli outbreak, possibly human error as well.
It is just ironic that the Germans are intent on phasing out nuclear energy due to fear of it's dangers while promoting "green" technologies, including organic farming, that has in this case killed more than the other 2 disasters together. The 3000 people who have taken sick may have their health compromised for the rest of their lives, from what I have heard about the effects of E. coli infections.
But energy companies, bad; organic farming, good, sigh....

$20 says that the whole thing was caused by someone wiping their ass with their fingers. Backwards nations must remain confined to their borders and not imported into the Western countries where they are mistakenly treated as equals in a 'multicultural' society.

Its all about selectability & direction.

Yowsers some people must carry their heads awfully low for something so self evident to fly right over. I'm talking to you ET and Larry!
The plain truth is if something bad happens that involves oil or nuclear energy then we're all doomed, the sky is falling and government must shut it down. FOR THE CHILDREN! But if something like this happens ... crickets. Get it? I didn't think so.

I just now clicked on the link and it appears the page has been taken down.

vin air

4:42 PM on June 5, 2011

If it's "organic" then it probably has a bit farm sh!te in it.

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/04/11/mischa-popoff-beware-of-organic-crusaders/

vin air
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ah71

5:26 PM on June 5, 2011

In this case not. The place that they closed down is "philosophically vegetarian", meaning they don't keep farm animals and don't use any animal based manures. All their fertilizers are plant based.
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vin air

8:20 PM on June 5, 2011

Show proof. This is not "climatology".

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/german-sprouts-suspected-in-e-coli-outbreak/article2047838/

Like Tim P: Washington Times link says, "Oops, we can't seem to find that page".

I did a search and found it at the following URL:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/8/dead-bodies-demand-organic-food-moratorium/

It looks like there may be a space in the work "food" in the link.

Found the page at:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/8/dead-bodies-demand-organic-food-moratorium/

I think we should really make use of the precautionary principle here and demand that "organic" food be banned from supermarkets.

"Organic" food is one thing that I will never buy in a grocery store as I pay too much for food as it is. I do buy from local farmers and prefer to get free range beef and lamb whenever possible. Free range chickens taste a lot better than the factory grown kind. I also have my own garden and I guess it's not "organic" because I use fertilizer on it. I won't use manure any more because it's from unknown sources and I don't want bacterial contamination. I do compost all of my kitchen waste (except for meat which makes the compost pile far too smelly) and add that to the soil to facilitate water holding capacity which is important in a dry environment.

SDN - organic or 'natural' farming was the mainstay of agriculture until the 20th century. It wasn't a source of constant death and destruction. Farmers had learned how to deal with manure and proper fertilization.

sexton beetle, david gillies - the long term effects of nuclear radiation contamination of both plant and animal/human life - isn't the same as the immediate death toll in the accident. It's obviously much higher.

thomas-l, certainly when a nuclear accident occurs, it's far more damaging than food poisoning because of the long term effects of radiation on plant and animal/human life. That's why govts worry about it.

As for the oil spill - no-one is complaining about oil for health reasons. And the key person wanting the Gulf Oil shut down was Obama, who then supported Brazil (and George Soros, his mentor) doing exactly the same thing.

And you know what is interesting? Consider how many comments here come up with totally different reasons for acknowledging the..whatever..of the quote. Hmm.

As Larry correctly points out, it's a niche market and keeps small farms in business. And no, organic foods aren't contaminated or disease-inducing - any more than commercial ones. There have been contaminants in commercial food sources as well: tomatoes, spinach, pork, milk, choclate bars - all commercially produced.

Read an interesting critique of finishing cattle and the rise of e-coli. Seems e-coli is killed in the cow's intestinal track by acidity. But when the cow is fattened with grain it makes the gut highly acidic which kills most of the e-coli bacteria but the few remaining are now used to high acidity and when the cow is not butchered correctly as they were in earlier times as shown in the book Fast Food Nation they get into the meat.

When we eat the contaminated meat our acidic intestinal track which would have killed the remaining bacteria has no effect on the ones now used to high acidity hence we get sick.

Another unintended consequence.

ET

I agree that the juxtapose doesn't quite fit, and the coverage of this event has been good. Perhaps you're taking me too literally, because I meant in general, the media give disproportionate grace to those organic farmers, and fear mongering for the others.

I think Kate's wondering where the articles saying "buy regular produce, it's safe". See what I mean?

"But both types can exist and there's no need to denigrate the one vs the other."

Agreed. But I think we're just having a little fun at the expense of the hippy's sacred cow; just as I dis soccer when pinko soccer fans are in earshot, even though I watch the odd game of footsies myself. The “schaudenfred”is well worth the heat for taking an irrational position.

Have a great weekend ET.

Organic cukes (or sprouts) kill more than nukes.

I remember having read many, many years ago at Junk Science that beansprouts were responsible for most the U.S.'s botulism (or salmonella?) poisoning. The "organic" is no surprise either.

Until you have eaten Watermelon from Korea, grown in a Honey-Hole, your tastebuds are inert...It gives another meaning to recycling

Right, ricardo.

"Organic" food is a marketing ploy. If one is truly concerned about the origins of one's food, educate oneself and make friends with local food-sellers.

Just my thoughts.

Way to go... you are linked at American Thinker!!

The Left despite all its "humanitarian" mewling has very high tolerance for human death, into the tens of millions if necessary to bring about their own utopian vision. One of their prime spokespersons, much decorated by western academia is Eric Hobsbawm, who in an interview with Robert Conquest said words to the effect that twenty million dead (the real communist butcher's bill was a hundred million) was a price worth paying to bring billions in the world communist "paradise". So the Left is interested in deaths only if they can be used in some way to flog the right. The Left lacks all moral standards itself and excuses all its crimes while holding the right up to impossible to meet standards. That they have been allowed to get away with this shameless double standard is the fault of conservatives for never fighting back with sufficient force to discredit the Left permanently as world class hypocrites.