Do Organic Food Nazis realise the purpose of preservatives and pesticides?
Preservatives preserve food by slowing or totally preventing spoilage.
Pesticides keep off…. take a guess…. pests!!!! I decided to try some corn on the cob from Whole Foods Market this summer and in 5 out of 10 of the cobs there were LIVE maggots.
To the organic food nazis: What should I have done with the maggots? Hugged them? Set them free? Allowed them to eat with me?
It seems that the function of preservatives and pesticides is totally lost on these people. They have no clue what they are for.
To those who say that preservatives and pesticides definitively cause diseases at the rate normal human beings consume them then please post references.
I recommend you read the book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. When I read it I became aware of the disturbing effects pesticides have on the eco-balance, and some of the natural ways to keep those pesky bugs from infesting food. You can see the problem of pesticides vs. organic farming through the eyes of two elderly (and fueding) neighbors. But you also learn a lot about the ramifications of pesticides on our environment.
(The book is listed under "Fiction" and was a very enjoyable read.)
Sure they do. It makes for nice looking food that lasts longer. However some of us can’t tolerate preservatives and pesticides and get very, very ill, so we have to pick out maggots and cut off bad portions. The maggots go in the garbage or I feed them to the fish, who love them. It’s not about bug loving or hugging, it’s about acute toxic hepatitis for me…..
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Why do you care? You eat your non-organic fruit, gulping down pesticides and preservatives by the lb.
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So are you saying that we should encourage farmers and corporations to continue to douse all of our fruit and vegetation with extremely dangerous chemicals that give people cancer and other diseases? How irresponsible is that? Just so you can have "pretty perfect produce" at some overpriced speciality grocery stores?
Believe it or not, there are legitimate, recognized and effective NATURAL insect control practices that can be used to keep pests from food, and they were used successfully for many years before corporate farmers and the behemoths like Monsanto, ADM, Cargill and others got in there and decided to take over everything, impose their GMO and hormones and hold family farmer’s hostage! Those entities have made people even more alienated from their relationship to the land, and it’s truly a shame. Nowadays, kids can’t even make the connection between the apples in a McDonald’s pie to the apples that grow on a tree! Some of them think those fruit rollups are REAL fruit…pathetic!
There are natural food preservatives, too…and back in the days when we used to encourage home economics, those sort of things were taught. People were taught how to shop wisely, how to prepare meals from scratch that were delicious. Homemakers shopped daily and sought out the freshest in season produce possible to bring to their tables. I am 46, so I can still remember when my family and neighbors had home delivery of milk in glass containers (even in large cities)….to me the milk, butter and ice cream tasted better then than this fancy-schmancy preservative laden stuff now!
Nowadays, we have crap passing as food with no true nutritional value sitting on the shelves with a ridiculous half life. Stuff chock full of preservatives and high fructose corn syrup that contributes to obesity and other diseases.
The ideal would be that everyone would be able to grow their own vegetables and fruit on their own plots or in community/uban gardens…but barring that, at least being to purchase that sort of produce at a place like whole foods or a farmer’s market is the next best thing.
Did you know that those maggots (probably really corn worms) are actually signs of the freshness of the corn? If you knew anything about REAL food, you’d realize that. Just simply cut off the part of the corn with the so-called "maggots" and add it to compost…or as someone mentioned earlier feed it to the fish.
BTW I wouldn’t throw that word "Nazi" around too casually if I were you… someone could call a "nazi" all those who support all those big business and world wide extermination of people with toxic chemicals Just because you want frankenfood with all the nutritional quality of waxed plastic fruit, doesn’t mean the REST of us do, too!
addendum:
sources for link between pesticides and diseases
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/07/27/pesticidestudy/
http://www.econet.sk.ca/issues/pesticides/links.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/45961.php
Also read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson.
I am NOT saying don’t use any pesticides at all…I am saying that overuse of pesticides is detrimental. Can you appreciate the difference? I think people have a right to choose foods that they deem as safe…and corporate farmers don’t want to allow us that choice…and I don’t think that concern and care for what I put into my body or what goes into my grandson’s growing body makes me or his mother "nazis."
Both of us are pro-organic environmentalists…and PROUD of it!
References :
http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/sustainable/handbooks/insectcontrol/7.html
http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1990/v1-511.html
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/special/2001/comforts/preservation.html
http://www.greentreks.org/allprograms/roughterrain/urbangardening/index.asp
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6164.cfm
I recommend you read the book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. When I read it I became aware of the disturbing effects pesticides have on the eco-balance, and some of the natural ways to keep those pesky bugs from infesting food. You can see the problem of pesticides vs. organic farming through the eyes of two elderly (and fueding) neighbors. But you also learn a lot about the ramifications of pesticides on our environment.
(The book is listed under "Fiction" and was a very enjoyable read.)
References :