Thursday Bird Droppings

But yea, I have them all on vinyl as well. And “Sleeping with the television on” is one of my favorites. So good.

I like it, but it wouldn’t be a request.

Stilletto

Pressure (which he actually plays a lot I think)

Big Man on Mulberry Street

And So It Goes

i’d like one from, like, 5-10 years later instead of pre-album.

are you saying that two milks can’t be different? that one can’t be healthier than the other?

product #1: apple
product #2: apple

still can have vastly different tastes and health benefits, etc.

Same as skim milk? By your definition, they’re both milk. You really don’t think there’s a difference?

That’s a pretty big one. I have a lot of problems with the definition of organic. Organic farmers are not saints, especially meat/poultry farmers, who really don’t treat their animals much better than any factory farmer. But it’s still in the long run probably a healthier option than non-organic.

Sure, when you buy organic in a store, it’s not the same. But you also should keep in mind how many small farms (who market in farmers markets and roadside stands) find it’s too costly to go through the whole certification process, but in the end are a lot more honest in their farming practices. One my dad’s closest friends is an organic farmer (not certified) and he loses tons of crops every year because he refuses to use a lot of pesticides. The same thing happens to most of the farmer’s at Takoma Park.

but that article leaves out a lot.

first off, I can’t take this seriously:

The National Review reports that Americans believe organic food is healthier by a 2-1 margin, despite the lack of any evidence supporting this.

There is no evidence anywhere of any organic food being better for you? Ridiculous. There are many, many examples of some specific organic food being better than some non-organic food. He brings up pesticides, stating that organic pesticides are no better than conventional ones. He leaves out the fact that some folks farm completely pesticide free. So it’s a question of NO pesticide, as opposed to “which is worse”.

Today’s synthetic pesticides and fertilizers are completely biodegradable. They’re supported by decades of studies that demonstrate their total safety.

What? ALL synthetic pesticides that all farmers are using today are supported by decades of studies that demonstrate their “total safety”? This sounds like it was written by Con-Agra.

Moreover, and this is my main point, not being able to prove something is better than something else is not at all the same thing as proving two things are equal. Which is the main argument articles like the one above espouse: “You can’t show me how they’re different, therefore them must be the same.” It’s a failure of simple logic.

And one that also doesn’t take into account labeling outside this country where business interests are not in such tight control of government standards. A clear-cut example of this is bovine growth hormones, which are not addressed in the article above. I can assure you, their addition into foods have been proven to make those foods less healthy. This is not something about two crops being “grown the same” that can be compared to “kosher” labelling. This is about one farmer feeding hormones to his cows and another farmer not, and how those hormones have repeatedly been linked to higher cancer incidence.

In the USA, rBST labels state “NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE HAS BEEN SHOWN…..”, as an FDA requirement. But look closely: 1) It says no “significant” difference, which is no the same as no difference; 2) It ignores any overseas studies, and only accepts studies approved by the FDA, which is heavily lobbied by Agri-Business.

It is a fact that numerous overseas studies in several different countries have conclusively demonstrated the higher cancer rates linked to rBST, to the point where growth hormones are banned by the entire EU, Canada, Japan, Australia, etc. But here in the USA you can still buy them if you want.

As an educated consumer, I choose not to poison myself, or my wife, who is a two-time survivor of estrogen-positive breast cancer. Organic labeling allows us to be confident that hormones are not getting into our food.

That’s the whole point.