Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides: study

Post by mhkool » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 12:57 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #106

mhkool wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who give advise are advisors, people who kill are murderers, people who have kids are parents and people who produce or spray poisons are poinsoners. Using the word "poisoner" is not calling some names, it is simply using the correct word for the person that we are discussing.

I have relations with my wife and we have children together. That makes it a true fact that I'm a motherf#@%er, yet using that label does not lead to productive discourse.

Post by bbddg » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 12:58 PM UTC

taneq wrote: post #87

rollthehard6 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds of all those times we are told that 'customers demanded X', as if we all stood outside supermarkets with placards saying, "We demand huge strawberries that don't taste of anything". The market does what helps the market, it often isn't good for people or the planet they inhabit - that's the story of our current era and customers need to demand change on that basis.

Yeah but when faced with the choice between the tomatoes that were $8.50/kg and really nice but would go off in 2 days, vs. the tomatoes that were $4.50/kg and still nice and red and lasted a whole week but were pretty tasteless, you bought the latter, didn't you? Customers demand things by paying money for them.

Post by elygre » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 1:06 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #96

nck4222 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Organic doesn't mean more flavor. Tasteless strawberries are around for a few reasons 1) you can't try before you buy. bigger, redder strawberries look better, so sell better, so are grown more, and so on until that's the expectation. if varieties are cultivated for their looks, that means they're not cultivated for their taste or sugar content 2) bigger strawberries are easier/faster to pick, which means they're che…

Most supermarkets have pint baskets where you’re allowed to sample. Sometimes they have sampling and “pit” trays. So people do have a choice at least in some supermarkets. The big issue for consumers (me inc) is shelflife. I want them to last more than 3 days in the fridge. Seascapes and Rosas have a decent combo of shelflife and taste.

Post by jacobwilliamroy » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 1:19 PM UTC

blodovnik wrote: post #25

There’s no surprise here is there? We, as a society, poison pretty much everything as a standard part of the agricultural process. The outcome -the goal - of that is of course, death of vast numbers of insects. Mission accomplished. It’s a success story, strangely. The only thing that seems weird to me is how society was so easily convinced that soaking all our food in poison is OK and not a problem all good thumbs u…

Post by lonelappde » Sun, Aug 11, 2019, 1:26 PM UTC

bamboozled wrote: post #91

jimhi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We did demand X though. The supermarkets had both tasteless strawberries and organic ones and we made our choice. Many supermarkets still have organic ones and we still pick the cheaper, larger, less tasty one.

I just want to share an anecdotal story with regards to "tasteless" produce from super markets. I used to absolutely despise eating salad, I never knew why but I always just thought it was boring and I'd rather eat anything else; However, my girlfriend and I wanted to buy produce that wasn't wrapped in plastic so we started to shop at a local market held each week. There we meet a Tongan farmer who grew everything us…