Comments on UNI Freethinkers and Inquirers: The Appeal to Nature

Yeah, GM food is such a laughable issue in most in...

2009-05-05T11:10:20.898-07:00

Yeah, GM food is such a laughable issue in most instances. Humans have been genetically modifying agriculture and livestock for as long as farming and husbandry have existed. Does it really matter if we are selecting for preferable traits through cross pollination or by genetic manipulation in a lab? No. But the former, being more "natural", is viewed as preferable to the latter.

I'm also not inherently opposed to farming practices which are "better" for the environment, the problem is that with organically grown foods, the process is actually harder on the environment. It is a less efficient use of land which leads to far lower yields and higher prices. Instead of using "synthetic" pesticides organic farmers will use substances which include heavy metals and chemicals that are arguably more harmful than evil pesticides. Besides, the quality and taste of organic foods is overwhelmingly similar to "regular" food, albeit with a much higher price tag.

Man, I am worn out. I hope that makes sense!

I agree with you to an extent, Nick. Free range be...

2009-05-05T08:24:02.876-07:00

I agree with you to an extent, Nick. Free range beef is definitely better than standard beef, so long as it really is free range, and the animal is allowed to graze rather than being force-fed corn its whole life. When I say "better" I mean better in the taste and better for the animal. There are all kinds of horrible digestive side effects (for the cows, not for us) that come from feeding cows corn when they evolved to eat grass. With that said, I agree that it is utter bullshit that producers can get away with calling things "free range" which are borderline at best.

I love it when people point at genetically modifie...

2009-05-04T23:23:01.178-07:00

I love it when people point at genetically modified (GM) food and cry foul. They call it "Frankenfood", unnatural and stir up a bunch of shit for nothing.

So few of them know that they consume GM food every day. They don't understand that by harvesting and pollinating only certain crops with desirable traits we have modified the gene pool. I find "The Atheist's Nightmare" clip doubly hilarious because Ray Comfort has no clue that God actually did NOT make the banana he holds in his hands. Science did.

While a agree with you about alternative medicine,...

2009-05-04T21:59:14.695-07:00

While a agree with you about alternative medicine, I find that a lot of natural food is actually on the level.
I think that the appeal of free-range meats is that the animals are (in theory) treated better. Maybe some people think it improves the meat somehow, but I thought it was more of a moral issue. I'd rather support companies that treat their animals well.
Also, although they sell a lot of stupid shit at places like whole foods, a lot of it is actually healthier or tastier. For example, products made with sugar taste better than those made with high fructose corn syrup, and product made with plant oils and whole wheat flour are more healthy than those made with partially hydrogenated oils and bleached flour.
That being said, organic food is bullshit.