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The Great American Poisoning

justinmares.substack.com

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Re: The Great American Poisoning

#21

Post by mauvehaus »

Just finished The Omnivore's Dilemma. If you want a closer look at the industrial parts of the US food system, and a possible alternative, you could do worse than starting there.

If you're going to note that specialization in our food system is what makes it possible to feed so many people with so few farmers, sure, go ahead.

Wendell Berry and many others that the reduction in the number of farmers enabled by that specialization is what has hollowed out rural communities to the point where many services can't be economically provided to people living in rural areas because there are too darn few people.

I didn't grow up in a rural or agrarian area, but I live in one now. I most recently got to watch this through the lens of the school budget. The four towns that comprise our school district add up to in total 500-some students across 12 grades.

Getting a budget passed took two tries and some cuts because getting enough teachers and students together and transported to school buildings is pretty high. There were other factors, but structurally the low density of students is a huge cost driver.

So yeah, would more farmers farming smaller farms be less efficient? From a food production standpoint, yes. Would it bolster rural communities? Sweeping away a bunch of other diverse issues that are no doubt affecting communities differently, in aggregate, probably yes.

Bringing it back to TFA: would it result in a healthier, more resilient food system in the US? Almost certainly.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#22

Post by happytoexplain »

dvt wrote: post #14

Sans the typical HN quips about "default states" and whatnot, the article has a good point. It's actually kind of funny that whenever I travel to Europe, like 90% of the junk foods I occasionally indulge in when home (like hot Cheetos for instance) are banned. The US supermarket really is a minefield. It's more important than ever to cook at home, imo.

Does "quip" imply that it is somehow not a valid criticism?

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#23

Post by Taikonerd »

pjkundert wrote: post #16

A related conversation from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40650271 Basically: Polyunsaturated Fats are poisoning your Mitochondria, causing all sorts of metabolic illnesses. Seed oils seem to be poisonous to humans. However, there is a global Trillion-dollar industry that depends on this not being true... What could go wrong?

This is interesting. But I'm reserving my judgment about PUFAs.

There's a subreddit, https://www.reddit.com/r/SaturatedFat/. They hate PUFAs, and love saturated fats. But having lurked on that sub for a while, I don't think they've found the magic bullet for weight loss. It's not as if obese people who cut out PUFAs magically go back to a healthy weight.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#24

Post by BowBun »

cyberax wrote: post #13

A typical mishmash of disproven nonsense and scary-sounding soundbites. With a typical tree-hugging nonsense of "Part 5: Health Is Simple and Natural". Yeah, sure.

A hand-wave without substance? Yeah, sure. At least point out something that is disproven if you want to make this kind of statement...

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#25

Post by OutOfHere »

The FDA is the one to blame. They basically run the healthcare industrial complex. It will all make sense when it is acknowledged that the FDA works only for the healthcare industrial complex, and not at all for the taxpayer. This is because the healthcare industrial complex is what gives funding to the FDA via fees and other legalized bribes.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#26

Post by BowBun »

I think people are fixating on this sentence at the beginning -

> For a wild animal, the default state is health.

Maybe OP meant a state of balance? For all those that describe injuries and parasites - those kill the host if they aren't 'healthy'. Having parasites is not inherently unhealthy, there's a bunch of symbiotic relationships out there.

I agree though - you eat clean and get rid of the junk, you will be more healthy. Nothing in this article sounded crazy to me, and honestly shadow downvotes on reasonable replies with no reasoning leads me to believe the vested interests are in these forums as well protecting their image.

Also to be clear - OP is not talking about GMOs, they're talking about wonder bread where all the nutrition of the wheat is stripped out during processing, leaving you eating nothing but carbs and sugar instead of a more balanced food with fiber which helps you process the other things.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#28

Post by bryanlarsen »

voviz wrote: post #19
candiddevmike wrote: post #6

This started out interesting then went off the rails into an ad for paleo diet nonsense.

The author doesn't suggest for the readers to go on paleo. The author says: > With food, the rule of thumb is to eat like your ancestors ate. Avoid ultra-processed foods, and avoid (or dramatically cut down on) the big 3: corn, soy, and wheat. These crops are in everything and are often the most processed, most pesticide-laden, and most fertilizer-intensive crops in our entire agricultural system.

> most pesticide-laden, and most fertilizer-intensive crops

which isn't anywhere close to true. Wheat sells for $7/bushel, a bushel is 60 pounds. Corn & soy are similarly low value crops. Farmers just can't afford to put lots of pesticide and fertilizer on their crops. Fruits and some vegetables are far more valuable so spending more on inputs to increase yields makes sense.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#29

Post by jacobsenscott »

switch007 wrote: post #9

I'm not saying the article is worthless, but it's got a stench of "businessman's succcess qualifies him as an expert on everything" And I'm on board with "you are what you eat" I'm curious about carbs/sugar though. My mental state plummets if I eat too much. Or do I eat carbs because my mental state has already plummeted, as they're easy and rewarding...? And closer? (I have a convenience store opposite my house)

This article is absolutely worthless conspiracy theory nonsense.

Re: The Great American Poisoning

#30

Post by AlexandrB »

cyberax wrote: post #17
hprotagonist wrote: post #3

> For a wild animal, the default state is health. the default state is “multiple parasitic infections and permanent semi-healed injuries”

Yeah. I'm into reptiles, and I help people who are way more into that hobby than I am. Any wild-caught reptile basically needs rehabilitation: de-worming, mite treatments, and in many cases anti-fungal treatment.

Same with many types of wild caught fish. Parasites are almost always presents and will sometimes kill the fish due to starvation within months.
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