141–150 of 229 posts
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This argument makes absolutely no sense. You can be against empire x taking action y while being positive it’s taking action z.
The world lets us take action y (which they don’t necessarily like) because we do a lot of action z.
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The world lets us take action y (which they don’t necessarily like) because we do a lot of action z.
No, the US imposes its will on the rest of us by having an awesome arsenal and an eagerness to use it.
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There is a much easier and reliable way to test it -> https://eatrightindia.gov.in/dart/#:~:text=Test%2014%20%3A%2...
Yes indeed. Here's also an instruction video for it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXWPf0HQd5U
I think this NPR article is too quick to put a positive spin on this. They have made a nice little story here with a happy ending. Farmers had blackened turmeric -> they used a random yellow die they found -> massive lead spike in everyone's bloodstream -> Americans came in with a xray gun and saved the day -> no more lead in the blood. But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans i…
I guess since it's just fraud and negligence, we should forgive it?
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Burlap and Barrel tests their turmeric for lead and publishes the results. It’s a lot more expensive than Indian store turmeric, but personally I’m no longer willing to buy untested turmeric. (Relatedly, Lundberg publishes the arsenic levels of their brown rice, so that’s basically the only brand of rice I buy any more.)
isn't arsenic in rice trivial to deal with ("pasta" method)?
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I don't see any method for lead chromate in turmeric powder, unless I'm missing something.
It's the one below the one ashwinsundar linked, "detection of artificial colour in turmeric powder". The test is: when you add the powdered turmeric to water, natural turmeric will give the water a "light" yellow color, while adulterated turmeric will give it a "strong" yellow color. This is not a test that I'd characterize as "easy" or "reliable".
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I don't think the NPR reporter is deliberately spinning the story. I think a lot of people don't really believe that other people are really different from them. The reporter would never knowingly poison people for money, so it's not comprehensible to them that lots of people in the world just don't care whether they do or not. The only reason in their minds that people would do such a thing are economic desperation…
In the course of history, it wasn’t that long ago when people brought snacks to an execution. That’s a little hard to wrap your head around.
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isn't arsenic in rice trivial to deal with ("pasta" method)?
I wouldn’t call it trivial, no. Pre-boiling it only removes about 50% of the arsenic. If you start with US rice from arsenic-poisoned soils, after boiling the rice you can still have more arsenic in it than rice that had lower levels to start with (even when cooked traditionally).
I'm put off by how this is framed as a detective story. Pesticides that contain heavy metals and other carcinogens are a well known issue, with India (and South Asia more generally) being the worst affected. > You'll never guess the culprit Not knowing about turmeric comes off as deeply ignorant when a billion people consume it as part of their daily diet. > They don't know that this is harmful for human health Let m…
I quite enjoyed it. You're in a different part of the world and only have access to lead level data from your local population. You spot an anomaly in a cultural subgroup. Then through extensive guesswork you pinpoint a cause to a specific additive to a spice often consumed by folks in this culture. I would say that qualifies as a detective story. But anyway, lead chromate is not a pesticide. The level of harm from p…
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> But if you ascribe even the slightest but of agency to any of the non-Americans involved, you have to wonder if this problem will come back. From the article: > And recently they are celebrating some big news on the lead fighting front: This week, UNICEF and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new $150 million initiative to combat lead poisoning. Americans have disassembled US…
> The agency of Americans is also contributing to this reccuring. I’m going to push back very, very hard on ascribing any sort of blame on anyone other than those who are committing these acts. Least of all the American taxpayer, regardless of whether or not dismantling USAID is a good idea. If the rest of the world is so helpless that all hope depends on Americans to solve even problems such as this and it’s our fau…
‘In the early 2000s, New York City's health department noticed a perplexing blip: A surprisingly large number of Bangladeshi children in New York City were showing up in their lead database.’
For the cost of the research mentioned in the article, that seems a small sum to pay relative to the result achieved.
‘Soft power’ is not valued by many anymore, but cut it all and it’ll be interesting to look back in a generation or two and see the result.