Subject: Re: To purchase organic produce or not (was Re: RACHEL: Bruce Ames)
From: [email-masked] (Tim Starr)
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 11:57:25 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.politics.greens,sci.environment,sci.med,talk.environment,alt.sustainable.agriculture

In article <[email-masked]>,
Brian Manning Delaney <[email-masked]> wrote:
>...all you show in the rest of your article here [partly deleted] and
>in your other articles is that my speculations on why "sustainable"
>agriculture might produce safer foods don't constitute good evidence
>for the superiority of such foods. I agree (it's merely a hypothesis,
>after all). But that doesn't mean that the presumption has to be in
>favor in John's argument; rather, it means we don't know.

And when we don't know, we have no basis for acting one way or the other,
which means that I'm still gonna eat what tastes best to me :-), no
matter how it's grown.

>Note: "like me" includes not just not being poor, but knowing a few
>things about food safety. Indeed, this is why I'm not generalizing my
>arguments about food-buying choices to the level of public policy.

That may be the difference between us.  You're thinking of consumer
choices, I'm thinking of public policy.  As far as public policy goes,
I think the presumption of safety should prevail, which I admit is a
philosophical position and not a biological one.

>...I'd like to see food safety taught as part of a nutrition course
>that all high schoolers would have to take.)

Well, I wouldn't want it to be mandatory, but I'd like to see such a
subject made available to students of all ages.

>>Another argument against the theory that natural defenses against cancer
>>would've been adapted is that it confuses the function of the survival of
>>the fittest to mean fitness for longevity rather than reproductive
>>fitness....
>
>>...evolution only cares about reproductive
>>fitness, not longevity.
>
>Don't tell your parents that!
>
>Seriously, caring about longevity is one way of caring about rep.
>fitness.
>
>Me 'n my kin are social types, and have been for, oh, a few hundred
>thousand years at least. My grandparents and parents have passed on
>many jewels of wisdom to me -- jewels of wisdom that have helped me
>survive.
>
>My family may be an exception nowadays, but you can bet that elders
>had a huge effect on survival in times past.

"Huge"?  Why?  I'd tend to think it was pretty small.  I'd actually
argue that the ability of elders to enhance reproductive fitness has
increased a lot over the past couple of centuries, as longevity has
increased and they've had more to teach the young.

Tim Starr - Renaissance Now!  Think Universally, Act Selfishly

Assistant Editor: Freedom Network News, the newsletter of ISIL,
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