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

nationalgeographic.com

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

#121

Post by bbddg »

elorant wrote: post #66
obituary_latte wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it that society was convinced? Or was/is it that it is more “out of sight, out of mind”? I think for the layperson, little matters other than how much does it cost? If there is some invisible but safe-for-us chemical that increases yield and decreases cost, all the better for us, right? I think this is one of the great things to come out of the invention of the web. We are becoming better informed and this kind of…

It's a mix of both. If you want to eat tomatoes in the middle of winter agriculture will have to use a lot of pesticides. If society didn't have ridiculous expectations my guess is that the industry would use more sustainable methods of growing food.

Everyone wants to eat tomatoes in the middle of winter! I also want ice cream that tastes great but has no calories. If some company makes an ice cream like that but we find out 10 years later it's leading to the extinction of many insect species on the planet. Is it really my fault for buying the ice cream? Not the producers fault for using chemicals with such huge downsides?

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

#122

Post by lonelappde »

mhkool wrote: post #97
pfdietz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this "Roundup is a dangerous poison" was a propaganda meme that came out of the need to demonize US agribusiness in Europe. It's a kind of social activism protectionism. I would not be at all surprised to learn it was sustained by funding from ag interests in Europe. OF course Roundup is not a dangerous poison. This is simply a lie that is repeated over and over by the dishonest and the gullible.

I base my opinion on three court cases in the USA where evidence was borught to court that Monsanto knew many years ago about the cancer causing risks. on what do you base "this is simply a lie" ?

Whether roundup is safe or not is not clear to me, but the decision of 12 unwilling laymen with no access to independent research tools is certainly not credible.

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

#123

Post by jyounker »

pfdietz wrote: post #93
taneq wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poe's Law is strong with this one. I can't tell if you're serious or if this is advanced snarkasm.

Totally serious. The anti-Roundup fervor is of a kind with anti-GMO fervor. The goal of it is to provide a pretext to exclude cheaper US agricultural products from Europe.

I don’t trust the research that was done on roundup. Supposedly it degrades within six months.

The reality is that it doesn’t. We know this because the city of Davis, CA does public composting. Yard trimmings are scooped up, taken to the city compost yard, and over a year or som it becomes compost. Residents can pick up a quantity of free compost every year.

Around ‘97-‘98 the city compost started killing many kinds of plants.

The cause turned out to be glyphosphate. Despite Monsanto’s research, the reality was that glyphosate persists far longer than six months.

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

#125

Post by lonelappde »

pfdietz wrote: post #93
taneq wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poe's Law is strong with this one. I can't tell if you're serious or if this is advanced snarkasm.

Totally serious. The anti-Roundup fervor is of a kind with anti-GMO fervor. The goal of it is to provide a pretext to exclude cheaper US agricultural products from Europe.

American farmers suing a German company (Bayer) over their cancers is about protecting the European economy?

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

#126

Post by maxerickson »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #117
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…

Men and women went to great lengths to make sure no one ever got a straight answer regarding glyphosate. Y'know they use it to kill wheat before harvesting? Makes it lighter so the harvester can save a few piastres. Whole wheat bread can actually be a lot less clean than white bread, because the glyphosate is not washed off of the outer layer of the grain, which is discarded in the production of white bread. Is it sa…

The application of herbicides before harvest is about more than making things easier for the harvester:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_desiccation

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

#127

Post by corey_moncure »

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.

>The big issue for consumers (me inc) is shelflife. I want them to last more than 3 days in the fridge.

Are you married and if so, do both of you work full time jobs? My hunch is that this is directly related to two-income households

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

#128

Post by GlenTheMachine »

lonelappde wrote: post #119
bamboozled wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

With all respect, that's a load of magical thinking and placebo effect.

Maybe but not clearly so.

The produce I grow in my garden does in fact taste much better than the produce in the supermarket. There are good reasons for this. I grow heirloom varieties that were bred for taste and not shelf life. Watermelons and tomatoes in particular really do taste much better when they are under water stress. A watermelon that has been given too much water looks fabulous and has almost no sugar. I pick them when they’re ripe not a week before that.

IDK whether pesticides make produce bitter. But the rest of the post checks out.

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

#129

Post by dekhn »

mhkool wrote: post #97
pfdietz wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this "Roundup is a dangerous poison" was a propaganda meme that came out of the need to demonize US agribusiness in Europe. It's a kind of social activism protectionism. I would not be at all surprised to learn it was sustained by funding from ag interests in Europe. OF course Roundup is not a dangerous poison. This is simply a lie that is repeated over and over by the dishonest and the gullible.

I base my opinion on three court cases in the USA where evidence was borught to court that Monsanto knew many years ago about the cancer causing risks. on what do you base "this is simply a lie" ?

court cases like that don't mean anything, they're super biased by what lawyers make up as a narrative.

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

#130

Post by Glawen »

Retric wrote: post #82
enriquto wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

aren't they? here in France there are a few labelled varieties (not as many labels as apples, though)

At least in the US it looks like this: https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-fresh-fruits-berries-... You don’t actually know anything about the strawberries in the bottom left other than their organic.

In France they show the country of origin (region when it is from France) and the variety. Sometimes they state if it is organic.

Generally, the French fruits are more expensive but tastier. But when it is the high season of the fruit, like july/august for melon, then the french one are also cheaper.

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