Organic Foods

[shadowofman]

Organic may be subject to cloudy government standards, but I have my own version of organic and I stick with that. I may miss the mark every now and then, but I think overall I get it right.

 

And arguably you do get it right overall simply because you are the only one that can define organic for you. In fact, we might as well throw that word entirely out the window because the definition is completely subjective and arbitrary. I digress.

 

Because I have no faith in the term organic, the concept is not my interest. I am very very interested in transforming the large scale environmental destruction resulting from agriculture all the while increasing the nutritional content of food. This includes decreasing the anti-nutrient content of food. And that right there is my main educational interest at the moment. Identifying the molecules that inhibit metabolism and ultimately result in disease. These can be chemical pesticides or preservatives. These can be natural components like gluten, lectins, and phytic acid.

 

As we learn more an more about what is worth farming, we can adopt new technologies to produce these products in more controlled environments. And by that I mean everything from Eduardo Sousa's brilliantly simple foie gras to Dickson Despommier's grand architectural masterpieces. This all leaves room for the family farmer and the corporate monsters.

 

Meat factories need to transform into laboratories. As much as it sounds unappetizing right now, we will be growing steaks in petri dishes before we know it. This is a necessary evolution in meat production, and I'm sure can be done very well in time. I am very interested in working in this field cause I love my meat.

 

Trick is legislation. Food issues happen to be taking a back seat to everything else. If we wait for people to educate themselves and vote with their dollars, we will certainly run into crisis sooner than later. And then legislation is inevitable.

[shadowofman]

Heres a youtube vid about vertical farms. Its short but kinda entertaining

 

The wikipedia article gives a good overview of the concept which doesn't work well considering trasportation costs arn't that high and staple products like corn and rice don't lend themselves well to verticle farming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming.

 

The skyscraper farms are not as promising as simple roof top farms, which can grow whatever you want. On a nutritional note, we should be moving away from high sugar products like rice and corn. They certainly have their place, but root vegetables like turnips and carrots are more space efficient, a better source of calories, and yummy!

 

Hopefully, in the future, we will get to see huge green towers. I think I would cry at the beauty.

[Green]

The skyscraper farms are not as promising as simple roof top farms, which can grow whatever you want. On a nutritional note, we should be moving away from high sugar products like rice and corn. They certainly have their place, but root vegetables like turnips and carrots are more space efficient, a better source of calories, and yummy!

 

Hopefully, in the future, we will get to see huge green towers. I think I would cry at the beauty.

 

I'm just pissed the government pays money to grow crops like corn. Sure it brings down the cost of food... but I like the old days where they paid farmers NOT to grow stuff.

[shadowofman]

NAFTA and cheap US corn have also ruined the agriculture industry in Mexico. Mexican farmers can't compete, and end up moving to the US for jobs because they have no other options. Big Ag is a serious political force for the status quo, making us all sick so that Big Pharma can treat our symptoms.

 

But this is a whole other tread.