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Thread: Is the food you buy safe to eat?

  1. #61
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    Quote Originally Posted by GoldenBrain View Post
    I would love to hear about other forum members experiences with backyard gardening and or full scale farming.

    Does anybody here grow their own food? Do you use heirlooms, GMO, organic, outdoor, indoor, greenhouse, permaculture...etc?

    I'm interested in what methods y'all found to be successful as well as what failed.
    I'm ashamed to say I don't grow anything special, but several years ago, a family friend gave us a New Zealand spinach plant. I planted it in the soil, and it grows and spreads very prolifically. It spreads almost like a weed, but unlike weeds, it's easily pulled out from areas where it isn't wanted. It isn't actually related to spinach, but cooks up just the same, and is delicious.

  2. #62


    Drones evolve into a new tool for ag

    http://www.agriculture.com/farm-mana...ag_322-ar31423
    Doncha love how I find a way to turn every thread into a tech thread!

  3. #63
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    Quote Originally Posted by Syn7 View Post
    Doncha love how I find a way to turn every thread into a tech thread!
    Hahahaha! Why yes, actually I do. I'm always interested in the latest tech and I'd love to have my own drone to fly around.

  4. #64
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jimbo View Post
    I'm ashamed to say I don't grow anything special, but several years ago, a family friend gave us a New Zealand spinach plant. I planted it in the soil, and it grows and spreads very prolifically. It spreads almost like a weed, but unlike weeds, it's easily pulled out from areas where it isn't wanted. It isn't actually related to spinach, but cooks up just the same, and is delicious.
    I've got something around our property called "pokeweed" which cooks up like spinach only it needs to be double boiled like greens and it grows about 8ft tall. Sometimes the tastiest things grow as wild as weeds.

  5. #65
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    Grand ultimate produce!

    Attachment 7550

    Here's some of my grand ultimate produce that we picked today. Yes, those big green ones are zucchini and that one on the left is 14" long and almost as big around as a two liter bottle. That's a 25" farmers sink they are piled up in. There's also straight necked squash and a few pickling cucumbers in that mix. Typically cucumbers don't do well in our TX heat so we are pretty happy to have a few of these beauties. They were all grown without fertilizer, pesticides or herbicides. We just use compost to amend our soil when needed and allow the weeds to do the rest.

  6. #66
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    There are two approaches most people take to science.

    1. Reductionist (reducing things to their components and assuming the parts make the whole)

    2. Holistic (looking at the emergent properties of a system as a whole, assuming the whole is more than a sum of its parts)

    Modern sciences like quantum physics, neuroscience and GENETICS have exceeded the ability of reductionism to predict. To move forward it is becoming clear that a new type of maths able to deal with complex systems is required. We do NOT have this yet.


    The problem lies here. Because holistic prediction uses psuedo-science, this is because the actual science is not known. To foolish people this psuedo science is easily destroyed because applying reductionism to it it immediately falls apart under scrutiny.

    Unfortunately they do not understand that that is the nature of Holism, that the sum is more than the parts and that the parts don't matter. Like looking at the equation X=Y+Z, if we are interested in the relationship, it doesn't matter what the variables are as long as they maintain the equality.

    So there is a huge reductionist bias in modern science, where holistic approaches are often treated with ridicule. Then people attempt to prove holistic approaches wrong by REDUCING them and showing they don't work. What they have actually demonstrated is their own stupidity since the whole point is a holistic science cannot be reduced.

    To anyone forward thinking it is clear BOTH reductionism and holism are simultaneously necessary.



    The current treatment of GM crops is UNFORGIVABLE stupidity. It is an example of this reductionist bias. I am ALL for the research, but it needs to be done under a super controlled environment. Why? We have NO even small idea of the larger consequences on larger timescales of this, and if it was reversible, fine. But it is IRREVERSIBLE. Why? Soon all corn in the world will have cross bread with GM strains, you can't get rid of that, the system is too large.


    Stop the world starving??? The world is not starving because of low crop yields. This is a ridiculously simple way of looking at it. Again, reductionism over reaching its bounds.


    'Plenty has killed far more than famine, people wanting more than their share'
    Last edited by RenDaHai; 06-24-2013 at 07:43 PM.

  7. #67
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    Quote Originally Posted by RenDaHai View Post
    Modern sciences like quantum physics, neuroscience and GENETICS have exceeded the ability of reductionism to predict. To move forward it is becoming clear that a new type of maths able to deal with complex systems is required. We do NOT have this yet.
    Dahai, what kinds of maths have you studied?

    Machine learning, stochastic calculus, cellular automata, etc. all have incredible insight into a "holistic" view on science.

    The problem is that we don't have the maths, it's that the financial world has sucked up a lot of the brainpower that could be used in solving real problems, not developing new ways for rich people to skim money.

  8. #68
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    Quote Originally Posted by pazman View Post
    Dahai, what kinds of maths have you studied?

    Machine learning, stochastic calculus, cellular automata, etc. all have incredible insight into a "holistic" view on science.

    The problem is that we don't have the maths, it's that the financial world has sucked up a lot of the brainpower that could be used in solving real problems, not developing new ways for rich people to skim money.
    I read physics at uni and admittedly, I was not good enough at the maths.

    Cellular automata I have not come across, I will look into it, it looks interesting. Thanks.

    But I am talking about intelligent systems, not the summation of random values but things that are compelled to be a certain way by a compelling factor that remains unknown.

    It has been 10 years since i have even attempted to keep up to date with stuff, but I am pretty certain there is a large void in this area.


    You are probably right about the financial world poaching talent. But I think the problem is deeper in the way people look at things.
    Last edited by RenDaHai; 06-24-2013 at 08:31 PM.

  9. #69
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    Very well put RenDaHai! Thanks for contributing to this thread!

  10. #70
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    A new peer-reviewed study published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability found that conventional plant breeding, not genetic engineering, is responsible for yield increases in major U.S. crops. Additionally, GM crops can’t even take credit for reductions in pesticide use.

    GM crops are not a solution, in part because they are controlled by strict IP instruments. Despite the claims that GM might be needed to feed the world, we found no yield benefit when the United States was compared to W. Europe, other economically developed countries of the same latitude which do not grow GM crops. We found no benefit from the traits either.
    Here's the study:

    http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...8#.Uc3s3xbhC2w

  11. #71
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    I was curious to know more about the journal, so I googled.

    FWIW, the USDA lists them in the top 10 of sustainable agriculture journals.

    At least, as of 2009.
    Quote Originally Posted by bawang View Post
    like that old japanese zen monk that grabs white woman student titties to awaken them to zen, i grab titties of kung fu people to awaken them to truth.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sal Canzonieri View Post
    You can discuss discrepancies and so on in people's posts without ripping them apart. So easy to do sitting behind a computer screen anonymously, but in person I'm sure you'd be very different, unless you're a total misanthrope without any friends.

  12. #72
    Monsanto unapproved GMO wheat govt-stored up to 2011

    http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-gmo-wheat-government-439/

  13. #73
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    Quote Originally Posted by Syn7 View Post
    Monsanto unapproved GMO wheat govt-stored up to 2011

    http://rt.com/usa/monsanto-gmo-wheat-government-439/

    Ouch! Monsanto insisted that all of this unapproved wheat was incinerated in 2005. They also insist that the contamination of the Oregon field was sabotage. Hmmmm, me thinks they are telling fibs.

  14. #74
    Yeah... and what a coinkidink that they got a 6 month window where they cannot be legally held responsible for just such a thing a few weeks before it became known. I guess thats what happens when you make former Monsanto execs the head of the FDA. Nice huh!!!

  15. #75
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    You gotta wonder how these sleaze bags sleep at night. It prolly helps that they lay under quilts made of $100.00 bills. The sheeple in this country are either getting dumber or just stopped giving a shit. Well, to be fair, some care but it would appear that they are definitely in the minority.

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