What is Digg?127 Comments
- Toast1185, on 10/12/2007, -0/+43The increased productivity of the Agribusiness looks like it is working against itself. Just more proof that homegrown and organic is the way to go.
- jschrab, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36"Organic doesn't have anything to do with it. And there's still no concrete, compelling evidence that organic vegetables are any better for you than "non-organic" vegetables."
Not true Samdu. One example: It was found that ketchup made with organic tomatoes contains 3-times more lycopene, a prostate cancer fighting compound.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=333081&in_page_id=1798 - RetroRufio, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33I don't see the U.S. Government saying "hey, maybe we should stop trying to grow monster tomotoes and start providing decent, nutritious food for our citizens"
- YesWorld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24Indeed, it seems organic farming would help:
http://www.digg.com/science/New_Studies_Back_Benefits_of_Organic_Diet
"Organic fruits and vegetables had significantly higher levels of cancer-fighting antioxidants, according to a 2003 study in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The organic plants produced these chemical compounds to help fight off insects and competing plants, researchers said. A 2001 report by Britain's Soil Association looked at 400 nutritional research studies and came to similar conclusions: foods grown organically had more minerals and vitamins." - joeyjojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21"Organic food is better than the other crap"
For now. Unfortunately, Mega-farming, Wal-Mart, and the USDA are slowly changing the commercial definition of 'organic' to the point where it won't mean anything. - balaji123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17when u genetically engineer a vegetable to be 3 times it normals size especially when in poor, overused soil, its reasonable for it to have 3 time less nutritional value (per mass that is).
Go Organic - Osjpr, on 10/12/2007, -11/+27Organic food is better than the other crap, period. If you think otherwise you are in pretending-land.
- soogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Yeah, and it's getting less and less likely that the government will intervene. I mean, can we at least get mandatory package/food marking to show WHAT THE HELL IT IS I'M EATING? I'd like to be able to go into the supermarket and be able to find out what products are organic, and which are GMOs.
- kiltedwonder, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Anyone who has tasted home-grown veggies knows store bought ones have less flavor. It makes sense that they would have less of everything else as well.
- diecastbeatdown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13also consider where you buy your organics from. ask where they receive their shipments from. if they are importing from europe or south america chances are by the time they get to you they have been processed somehow and have lost some potency in the travel alone.
buying from a local market (aka farmers market) is typically the best plan. if you are needing to pass your fruits and vegtables over a scanner at a checkout counter chances are the goods you are getting are not the greatest. this is a broad generalization. - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Well, in Europe we produce too much food, and throw lots of it away, or pay farmers subsidies to not farm their fields. Wouldn't it make more sense to just not try and produce so much, so quickly.
Of course, it's possible it's not due to organic farming or not, but more to do with the varieties farmed. That is, modern commercial farming relies on varieties that grow quickly and can be air freighted round the world with little damage. Those varieties may not be the most tasty or nutritious... - RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Produce and cattle are bred for size in America, since they are sold by weight. Maybe this is necessary to sustain the sheer size of our market for these products, i dunno. Maybe it's just necessary to sustain the sheer size of our people. All I can say is that when I travel overseas to places like India, the fruit taste like they were grown in heaven compared to what I'm used to in the US. They are half the size but twice as sweet.
- DBCubix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11"Eat your vegetables, Kevin."
"But mom, the nutritional content of fruits and vegetables has declined dramatically over the last 50 years."
"Really? Looks like you get a second helping of brussel sprouts then." haha - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I agree, a lot of vegetables taste like water (I'm a vegetarian, so I eat plenty of them ;). It's one of the reasons I prefer organic food. But isn't always possible, and is no guarantee of more taste.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Is this really due to inorganic farming practices or because for the past 50 years veggies have been bred for toughness and a total lack of flavour so they can ship better
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Other foods besides fruits and vegetables for nutrients... which are pretty much the main source for many nutrients. If we're eating more animals to get more nutrients, then we'd have to eat more of them too since they are also eating the same lower nutrient fruits and vegetables.
Sounds like we'd just have to eat _more_ food, not simply more kinds of food. - bugsy187, on 10/12/2007, -22/+30Clearly this is another liberal lie circulated by hippies, terrorists, Osama Bin Laden, satan, Karl Marx, and the boogie man. These alarmists hate freedom and if we believe them, the terrorists win. YOU DON'T HATE FREEDOM, DO YOU????
;) - CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8You canot get real whole grain in this country anymore. They process our grains until that's nutritional value is less than dirt. And pigs cows and chickens produce omega 3 (a substance that is proven to improve your brain and heart!) naturally if they are fed food with nutritional value, which we do not do!
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10The nutrient content is also dependant on the soil. That's kind of the whole point here.
- Burmask, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Put down the keyword and pickup a hoe diggers. Time to get organic on your ass.
- balaji123, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7More technology is the cause of the nutrition depletion in the first place......with minimal technology and pure healthy soil...you will get the best vegetables in taste and nutrition
(technology in farming usually means genetic engineering and artifical pesticides --> BADDD!) - brianmost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Yours is the most interesting comment so far. It's quite possible that the steps being taken to enlarge fruits and vegetables are only serving to enlarge the sturdy portions that really only serve as an environmental defense or for moisture retention. You might be able to coax a tomato to grow twice as large, but in doing so you might not coax the plant to provide the nutrients it would store in there twice as quickly.
- CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6While I don't make any claims that isn't true (and, indeed, I buy organic food as often as I can), the Soil Association aren't exactly impartial when it comes to organic food production. They run one of the UK's organic food certification schemes (from what I can tell anyway). That's not meant to be a criticism of them in any way though...
- Synoptic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7How many 8-yr old diggers are going to read the headline and drop the statistics on their parents at dinner tonight?
"Eat your vegetables, Kevin."
"But mom, the nutritional content of fruits and vegetables has declined dramatically over the last 50 years." - CedanticPunt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I wasn't criticising organic food in general (as I said, I often buy it)... just that the Soil Association aren't going to be impartial. It's like McDonald's producing a report saying burgers and fries are good for you.
Personally I prefer the taste of organic fruit and vegetables. I also don't like the idea of eating loads of petrochemicals (fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides, herbicides etc), certainly not for feeding to my baby son. But that's just me. It's a market economy and no one's forcing you to choose sides - if other people think it's a waste of money then I respect that opinion. - bugsy187, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"Companies, like greenpeace, that convince people that GM foods are bad, are hurting society and causing entire countries to starve."
Actually, fertilizers were supposed to solve world hunger after world war 2. They only increased the number of people starving. Increased standard of living is the only way shown to reduce population growth and curb starvation.
GMOs are not as wonderful as you might think as shown when they were introduced into agriculture in India. The plants produced a protein poisonous to certain insects that eat crops. This reduces the need for pesticides. After a few years, the insects had developed resistance to the protein, rendering the benefit useless. Farmers are being economically pressured to purchase GM seeds, seeds that grow into sterile plants incapable of producing the next generation of crops. The farmers are completely reliant on the genetic engineering corporations for these seeds year after year. This puts the farmers at the economic mercy of the corporations. It should be noted that the amount of debt and suicide of Indian farmers in recent years. It's been argued that there is a link.
There are concerns about allergic reactions and potential environmental complications caused by these crops. Neither you or I can say for certain what the implications may be. - DaveNoisy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I believe one of the reasons that organic veggies have more nutrients (or to be specific, are more nutrient-dense) is because they typically have less water in them..where as many conventional crops use seeds that have been bred to retain more water..thus more 'produced' and more market value.
- brandizzle, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Technology isn't the answer to everything. The sooner we learn that the better off we'll be.
- dextroz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5i concur. it's the same thing in europe too. the tomatoes are small but they are juicy and flavorful as heck there! kinda makes you take a step back to the late 90s and think that maybe all that commotion about bringing in gm foods was worth something :-/
- SoCalDissident, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The soil is HARDLY the only thing that affects flavor/content. The length of the growing season, the weather, HOw it's grown, if it is picked ripe or ripens in a truck on the way to market, how it's stored, and of course, how it's prepared.
- vhold, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I didn't really understand that part of the article. If anything that's an argument for the parent to make the kid eat _more_ vegetables, to make up for that.
- dextroz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4India has increased it wheat output topping the US over the past 10 years. They only use organic vegetables and everything you buy there has more taste and flavor. Unfortuantely, it commands more money as export so most of the best foods are exported leaving less back for the countrymen. Your argument of starvation is total *****. It might help when you need the food 'fast' but once the agri-process is in place and staving immediate mal-nutrituin is not longer the issue, one can stress on quality and quantity.
- Spiffness, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4This is important stuff and I'm very happy to find this on Digg.
I switched to all Organic food about a year ago and the difference is amazing. I can instantly tell if something I'm eating is non-organic, the taste is gone and I'm hungry again in half the time I would be normally. - nemoder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I would have to agree. We experimented with growing a new kind of apple on our orchard called Dulcet. It's very high in antioxidants and one of the best tasting apples I've had but because it only has a shelf life of a couple months there's no way we'll ever be able to sell it on a commercially large scale.
- RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've wondered this myself. If Americas bigger produce has lower nutritional value per unit weight, then one could imagine that the extra weight is mostly just water and cellulose. Maybe someone who knows agri science could comment.
- MrGeneric, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Grow your own! http://www.google.com/search?q=heirloom seeds
The heirloom varieties have the genetic characteristics that are missing from commercial crop seeds and having a garden has other positive benefits. Tending to a garden is a great way of having some "time out" from the overly symbolic and cerebral lives that we live these days, you are also doing something productive and healthy at the same time. - YesWorld, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3And store bought veggies even seem to have less smell.
"Researchers found that odors from foods may be nutritional signals that the human nose has learned to recognize."
http://digg.com/science/FOOD_-_If_It_Smells_Good,_It_s_Good_For_You - Headphoner, on 10/12/2007, -8/+11Vegetables tastes like water :( because it's just full of water nowadays.
- RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The last NPR Science Friday had a really interesting segment about the impact of industrialized agricultural techniques. The interview was with Michael Pollan, author of "Omnivore's Dilemma". I just heard the podcast a few days ago. Worth downloading.
- OneZeroZeroOne, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6There's a huge difference between selective breeding and genetic engineering and you KNOW IT.
Forget foods for a second. Are you trying so say that there's no difference between a breed of dog that has been bred over hundreds of years for certain traits and a genetically engineered bio-beast? Get real. You can't breed glowing hearts into mice any more than you can breed certain GM traits into fruits and vegetables. - goflyers, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7or maybe the U.S. government’s level of accuracy for measuring the nutritional value of vegetables has increased in the past 50 years.
- bugsy187, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2...
- jackbraver, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Have you ever tasted "Elephant Garlic", bred for larger size, as compared to regular garlic? The larger 'elephant' cloves of the always seem to have the same amount of flavor of the relatively smaller cloves of the regular. It's sad that this country, the market--and consumers accordingly--demands larger goods, especially when what's important (flavor) suffers.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sometimes they are bred to be sterile on purpose in order to not spread to other farms etc. Most farmers, at least here in the US, buy new seed every year anyway. Insect resistance is a concern with standard pesticides as well.
- Wiggles2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3billyboob why do you ignore all the evidence that organic food IS better for you? or are you just a nay-saying *****?
- JohnboiWaltune, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Mannatech is a MLM (multi-level marketing, like Amway) and also run by fundamentalist Christians who make faith-based claims like neddy ... they say Mannatech prevents and even cures cancer and diabetes, etc. There's no science to back up their claims whatsoever. It's all about people "feeling" they are preventing disease and willing to spread their claims zealously.
"It is considered the greatest discovery in health since insulin" By whom? The people selling it and trying to move up to a higher position on the MLM pyramid scheme?
Don't get taken in by pills, powders, and potions that promise the world. A diet high in fiber, lean meats, fruits, and vegetables (organic or not, it makes little difference) is the way to go. But if you take something and it makes you feel better, then more power to you. Just don't think it is preventing cancer or disease... such claims are untestable without a massive scientific study lasting many years. - GlargTheKelfn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3the reason: plants are speed grown now. they use chemicals & artificial light to shorten the growing cycle. this means less time for plants to absorb the minerals from the ground.
the solution: grow your own. i live in an apt and we grow our own tomatos, spices and peppers. the taste 100X better than store bought. - Refrag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/organicfarming.htm
"...a spate of new research has shown that organic farming actually yields better results than modern techniques..." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Make sure you aren't comparing hydroponic tomatoes to ones grown in the ground... For example have a tomato in the midwest then go to California and have a REAL tomato.
Make sure they are in season too. - dangerweasel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My Mom was just talking to me about this. She used her |337 $k1||$ as a research librarian to do some research and came to the conclusion that the high-growth that want out of large farm veggies just adds water weight. If you let them grow naturally they add more nutritious content.
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