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>> It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it While true, this isn't because humans are incapable of improving

>> It's just common sense advice that humans seldom make a food healthier by tinkering with it While true, this isn't because humans are incapable of improving food. It's because the ways our species has been improving food recently have been driven by capitalism; we've been making it easier to grow and giving it more appealing taste so that it's easier to mass produce and sell. These qualities, especially the taste 'improvements', often result in significant reductions in nutritional quality. If Big Aggro were instead focusing on making our veggies more nutritious, I'm confident that they would succeed.

darkclarity 11y ago
It got to a point where governments had to mandate that certain processed foods (e.g. bread, breakfast cereals) must contain extra vitamins and minerals - just to keep the population from damaging themselves.
brashrat 11y ago
It's not driven by capitalism (any more than any transaction ever has been), it's driven by consumerism. Twinkies would not be manufactured or sold if people didn't like gobbling them up at the available price. Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) and simply blame your fellow citizens for being a bunch of idiots.
- mordocai 11y ago
  It is driven by both capitalism and consumerism.
- brenschluss 11y ago
  > Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) The market is an emergent phenomenon. A market is indeed made up of corporations which is made up of people, but this does not mean that "just made up of people" is an adequate answer.
  - brashrat 11y ago
    No way, you are just wrong. Markets existed well before capitalism and well before corporations, and they exist where neither of those things exist.
    - brenschluss 11y ago
      You're right, but your point doesn't negate my point that dissecting an emergent phenomenon to 'simply' be the sum of its parts is a comprehensible way to understand the phenomenon.

darkclarity 11y ago

It got to a point where governments had to mandate that certain processed foods (e.g. bread, breakfast cereals) must contain extra vitamins and minerals - just to keep the population from damaging themselves.

brashrat 11y ago

It's not driven by capitalism (any more than any transaction ever has been), it's driven by consumerism. Twinkies would not be manufactured or sold if people didn't like gobbling them up at the available price. Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) and simply blame your fellow citizens for being a bunch of idiots.

mordocai 11y ago
It is driven by both capitalism and consumerism.
brenschluss 11y ago
> Stop blaming corporations (which are just made up of people) The market is an emergent phenomenon. A market is indeed made up of corporations which is made up of people, but this does not mean that "just made up of people" is an adequate answer.
- brashrat 11y ago
  No way, you are just wrong. Markets existed well before capitalism and well before corporations, and they exist where neither of those things exist.
  - brenschluss 11y ago
    You're right, but your point doesn't negate my point that dissecting an emergent phenomenon to 'simply' be the sum of its parts is a comprehensible way to understand the phenomenon.