3 ms·

It's sad that it's come to this on needing to test these things, but amazing initiative! Would love something like this where I am.

• cjflog 1y ago
  Where are you? This project is not necessarily limited to products that are available in the United States. Anything that can be shipped to the United States is still testable.
  • ebbi 1y ago
    In New Zealand, but just thinking about some of the items that wouldn't be able to be shipped to the US.
• gcanyon 1y ago
  Serious question: around 1900 meat was often preserved using formaldehyde, and milk was adulterated with water and chalk, and sometimes with pureed calf brains to simulate cream. I hope we can agree that we are better off than that now. What I'm curious about is whether you think it's been a steady stream of improvements, and we just need to improve further? Or if you think there was some point between 1900 and now where food health and safety was maximized, greater than either 1900 or now, and we've regressed since then?
  • abdullahkhalids 1y ago
    Trying to collapse high dimensional, complex phenomena onto a single axis usually gives one a fake sense of certainty. One should avoid it as much as possible.
    • gcanyon 1y ago
      And yet we report gun deaths per year, smoking rates, sea warming, etc. etc. The error isn't in producing or considering an aggregate result, but in ignoring where it came from. Since this is an internet forum and not a policy think tank I think that error is largely moot. Or put another way: it was a simple question that the ggp can answer or not as they choose. I was just curious for their perspective.
  • cjflog 1y ago
    I don't know, but I do know there is room for improvement from where we are now, and I think we should strive to do better.
    • gcanyon 1y ago
      For sure! Turnabout for the goose etc.: My instinct is that things have largely gotten better over time. At a super-macro level, in 1900 we had directly adulterated food that e.g. the soldiers receiving Chicago meat called "embalmed". In the mid-20th century we had waterways that caught fire and leaded gas. By the late 20th we had clean(er) air (this is all from a U.S. perspective) and largely safe food. I think if we were to claim a regression, the high point would have to be around 2000, but I can't point to anything specific going on now that wasn't also going on then -- e.g. I think microplastics were a thing then as well, we just weren't paying attention.