111–120 of 134 posts
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Arsenic in rice is due to exactly that, pulling naturally occurring arsenic from the water used for irrigation.
I was under the impression that the majority of the arsenic concentration in rice fields is actually an unintented consequence of pesticides used in the 1800's that persist in the soil still today.
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The resulting decline in the number of people that can be fed at one time might not be as great for your kids.
Modern industrial agriculture actually produces far less per acre than small market gardening by hand does. The efficiency of the industrialized approach isn’t in output per acre it’s in output per person hour. So if large numbers of people farmed by hand we’d actually be able to feed more people, but the trade off is far lower output of other industrialized goods and services.
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I hate it too. The one thing that does make me a bit optimistic is that firstly that for quite a few of the big issues, things are gradually getting better (leaded petrol having been phased out, PBDEs are on the way out, average quantities of things like phthalates and PFOA in people's blood I believe are dropping in most places). The shift away from fossil fuels could be another massive health improvement - studies…
wow, completely missing the point. also babies and children aren't smokers so there's no equivalency. childhood is naturally fastest growth period anything disrupting hormone balance because of these traumas can drasticaally affect the rest of the childs life. think making them a mouth breather from disrupting immune system triggering asthma or allergies. this all connected and most people don't realize how much they…
Well for sure, but I do remember the thick cloud of smoke that we had to go through... I'm not saying it's equivalent obviously, but still quite amazing that it didn't affect us more.
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Best solution is to not having kids. This is if you think for the kids first. There is no reason to have kids that is for the benefit of the potential child. But nobody likes that. People's selfish wish always comes first before the potential kid's benefit. So kids will have these toxins in their body in the end and any problem that comes with it.
Existence feels like a benefit over non-existence. But this is a philosophical problem rather than a measurement problem.
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Not the only source. American rice is grown sometimes on old cotton fields, which were sprayed with arsenic to control boll weevils. Apparently washing the rice does remove quite a bit.
washing and also soaking for several hours/overnight and/or boiling it with lots of water (and pouring it out) can greatly reduce it iirc btw, afaik, naturally, brown rice has more has alot, basmati rice seems to have the least https://sites.dartmouth.edu/arsenicandyou/arsenic-in-rice-an...
Incidentally there are also some studies challenging the heavy metals in broadleaf plants link. The newer studies suggest surface contamination is a much bigger factor. That's also another 'pro' in the column for cleaning your vegetables with white vinegar instead of soap. Acids are pretty good at dissolving metal dust, especially from residual contamination near roads from leaded gas. My yard tested high.
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Modern industrial agriculture actually produces far less per acre than small market gardening by hand does. The efficiency of the industrialized approach isn’t in output per acre it’s in output per person hour. So if large numbers of people farmed by hand we’d actually be able to feed more people, but the trade off is far lower output of other industrialized goods and services.
You’re going to need to define terms to get me to even closely believe what you’re saying.
Another example is starting virtually all seedlings inside and then transplanting, which virtually all market gardens do. That gives a head start to your plantings. But of course again it’s labor intensive.
A good summary can be found in page 21 and following of the book How Asia Works (which can be found online: https://delong.typepad.com/files/studwell.pdf).
> Grow and dry your own. That might be a particularly good idea if you use a lot of basil Growing your own food to avoid heavy metals is actually horrible advice. To be done safely you need to get your soil tested; especially in more urban areas your soil is often just as bad or worse than the soil these were grown in. Remember, burying used motor oil after an oil change rather than recycling it was common practice l…
Testing your soil is relatively inexpensive[1] and pretty straightforward to do. Further, if the goal is to grow herbs, you can easily stick to gardening in containers or raised beds, where you get to completely control the growing medium. If you're in an urban area, those are probably the most realistic options for you anyways. [1] https://www.sites.google.com/site/healthygardeners/testing-l... reports that costs ra…
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Existence feels like a benefit over non-existence. But this is a philosophical problem rather than a measurement problem.
I'm of the opinion that the suffering we do as a race isn't worth the creativity and pleasure. Plus if you don't exist, you don't know what you're missing out on.
Otherwise, shut the fuck up - you clearly value life.
I hate this. I’m up to my eyeballs trying to keep my newborn away from all the toxic shit that’s in every part of his life, BP* in plastics, flame retardants in clothes and mattresses and rugs, heavy metals in baby food and now in herbs, micro plastics in food, radioactivity and mercury in farmland around coal fired power plants, etc etc etc. The negative externalities on dangerous chemicals is so very high; what am…
I can only imagine what I was exposed to as a kid by parents that simply weren’t educated in exposing my developing mind and body to these unregulated chemicals in everyday objects.