4 ms·

I don't know, what's a consumer to do? I read this, and then the side panel has links to three previous BBC News articles: - Organic produce 'better for you':

by dtf 17y ago

I don't know, what's a consumer to do? I read this, and then the side panel has links to three previous BBC News articles: - Organic produce 'better for you': £12m study shows organic food contains more antioxidants and less fatty acids. - Organic food 'better' for heart: 10 year study shows tomatoes contain more antioxidants. - Organic veg given health boost: research shows soup made from organic veg contains six times more aspirin (?!) Many of these kinds of stories seem to have the grubby handprints of PR companies all over them. Are antioxidants good or bad? I don't even know any more... Until I know any better, I'll be sticking to my trusty two criteria: 1. Does it taste good? 2. Is the price in line with the taste?

tokenadult 17y ago
Is the price in line with the taste? Most of us reading HN are consumers in industrialized countries with thriving, free-market economies. For eaters in poor countries, every gain in efficiency in agriculture is a reduction in price of food for eaters who devote most of their income to food. There have to be seriously inexpensive ways to produce food in some countries for some people to eat at all.
- easp 17y ago
  Or they might be permitted some land of their own where they can grow their own food, or be given access to commons to where they and their animals can forrage. You have a totally skewed way of thinking if you think we need free markets in order for people to avoid starving. People are perfectly capable of providing their own food given some land some seeds and some sun, and some water. The amount of land required isn't even all that high. Indeed, it is probably their ability to produce a surplus that lead to markets in the first place and those markets made it possible to justify cutting people off from the ability to feed themselves. At this point, there are plenty of cities in the US where it isn't legal to store rain water that falls on your own land.
  - tokenadult 17y ago
    You have a totally skewed way of thinking if you think we need free markets in order for people to avoid starving. You need to take that up with the historians of economics. The last few major famines in my lifetime were all in countries that have adequate capacity to produce food, but had governments at those times that tried to impose Marxist socialism on their populations. More to the point of this thread, will you allow the smallholders you mention to use whatever means they find economical or convenient to grow food on their own land, or will you insist that they grow only "organic" crops?

by dtf 17y ago

tokenadult 17y ago

Is the price in line with the taste? Most of us reading HN are consumers in industrialized countries with thriving, free-market economies. For eaters in poor countries, every gain in efficiency in agriculture is a reduction in price of food for eaters who devote most of their income to food. There have to be seriously inexpensive ways to produce food in some countries for some people to eat at all.

easp 17y ago
Or they might be permitted some land of their own where they can grow their own food, or be given access to commons to where they and their animals can forrage. You have a totally skewed way of thinking if you think we need free markets in order for people to avoid starving. People are perfectly capable of providing their own food given some land some seeds and some sun, and some water. The amount of land required isn't even all that high. Indeed, it is probably their ability to produce a surplus that lead to markets in the first place and those markets made it possible to justify cutting people off from the ability to feed themselves. At this point, there are plenty of cities in the US where it isn't legal to store rain water that falls on your own land.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  You have a totally skewed way of thinking if you think we need free markets in order for people to avoid starving. You need to take that up with the historians of economics. The last few major famines in my lifetime were all in countries that have adequate capacity to produce food, but had governments at those times that tried to impose Marxist socialism on their populations. More to the point of this thread, will you allow the smallholders you mention to use whatever means they find economical or convenient to grow food on their own land, or will you insist that they grow only "organic" crops?