Future of the Food-Chain

[labelwench]

On Earth? I hear there are oceans on several moons in our solar system and it was announced of a multiperson vehicle to travel to an asteroid by NASA,

The Earth's system is fragile to overconsumption but those who think of it as a prison are guilty of at least failing to grasp the science of a close ecosystem.

People think we are doomed to lose the planet and all life on it, but what they don't realize is there willb be survivors from animal and plant species that return and it's up to use , to us rather to protect further damage and to educate people about th the science of a closed ecosystem.

I ag

~theunify

We reside in 'a closed ecosystem', as you point out, theunify.

Increasing global population, weather related crop shortage, and profit oriented political policy are just a few of the factors that are contributing to the circumstances of today and the forecast of significantly higher costs for food, energy and transportation, which shall translate into hardship for many persons.

I doubt that we shall lose the planet and all life on it in the near future due to our own short-sightedness, though I do anticipate some extreme 'restructuring' on a large number of fronts.

[labelwench]

Though it was -10C this morning and there was ice on the water buckets even inside the attached greenhouse, gardening is well underway at the homestead. A variety of flowers are started under grow lights and in an east facing window, I expect to be harvesting the first radish of the season in 7-10 days, as I observe the red bulbs already beginning to fill out, and leaf lettuce also is now starting into it's rapid growth phase. My first tomato plants have a month of growth on them and I will start a few more for patio pots and hanging baskets. Though tomatoes are readily available at the store and Romaine lettuce from the US was a mere 86 cents per head last week, there is nothing like the flavor and nutritional content of food freshly harvested, still resonating with the life energy of the sun, water and mineral combine.

Anyone who hates vegetables has never truly tasted them as nature intended, IMO. Our food supply does moderately well for quantity, but the quality of the eating experience just does not compare, and that is an opinion shared by many, admittedly mostly those who actually are stewards of the soil and the planet.

My radishes shall be larger than these in a few days time, as I grow a German hybrid variety known as 'Raxe', which grows rapidly large, yet does not turn woody. Crisp thin slices make a delightful open faced sandwhich......yum yum......

[labelwench]

Recycling is all the rage these days, and yet, do you realize that not so many generations ago, recycling was precisely what EVERYONE did? The reason we now need to redouble our attention in this area is because we have become a community of consumers, accustomed to convenience while we renew our search for meaning in a life that now threatens to tip the balance.

So, just who is to blame for the current state of affairs?

Certainly NOT the generation mentioned below.

Subject: Yes it is all true.

Thought this was very "thought provoking" in light of the "green frenzied world" that we have today!!!

In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that she should
bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the
environment.

The woman apologized to him and explained,
"We didn't have the green thing back in my day."

The clerk responded, "That's our problem today.
The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."

He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, they returned their milk bottles,
soda bottles and beer bottles to the store.
The store sent them back to the plant to be washed
and sterilized and refilled,
so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled.

But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.

In her day, they walked up stairs,
because they didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. They walked to the grocery store and
didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine
every time they had to go two blocks.

But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.

Back then, they washed the baby's diapers
because they didn't have the throw-away kind.
They dried clothes on a line,
not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -
wind and solar power really did dry the clothes.
Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters,
not always brand-new clothing.

But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.

Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house -
not a TV in every room.
And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief,
not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because
they didn't have electric machines to do everything for you.
When they packaged a fragile item to send in the mail,
they used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it,
not styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline
just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.
They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club
to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.

They drank from a fountain when they were thirsty
instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time
they had a drink of water.
They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen,
and they replaced the razor blades in a razor
instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But they didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus
and kids rode their bikes to school or walked
instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical outlet in a room,
not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And they didn't need a computerized gadget
to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space
in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks
were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

[labelwench]

Everybody eats, and what we eat in future, compared to how we have obtained our nutrition in the past, is ever-changing, as is our biology over time in response to these changes in diet, with quite accurate records being capable of being discerned from a study of bones and dentition. Apparently, not all the news has been good, in the wake of the dawn of agriculture. Some interesting details and an excellent short video on vertical agriculture at the link that follows.

The dawn of agriculture around the world was accompanied by a surprising trend. From China to South America and everywhere in between, people in farming cultures became shorter and less healthy than their hunter-gathering ancestors. Amanda Mummert, an anthropology graduate student at Emory University, led a first of its kind review of health and height statistics from the days when agriculture sprouted around the world.
“Many people have this image of the rise of agriculture and the dawn of modern civilization, and they just assume that a more stable food source makes you healthier,” Mummert said in an Emory press release.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/peop...ps-110616.html

[labelwench]

'Tis the season of food and festivities so perhaps I should share a 'saucy' recipe with you, compliments of the molasses company. This had me giggling fair plenty.... Enjoy!

[labelwench]

I have been researching my own personal reaction to tartrazine for almost a year now, poring over labels and diligently avoiding any suspect foods to clear my system for days or weeks before trying a product labeled to contain this food additive to monitor my reaction(s), if any.

There is no longer any doubt in my mind that it is tartrazine which has been causing me to experience a couple of unpleasant symptoms.

The symptoms are sharp pain and numbness in my hands, usually manifested by swelling and stiffness such that I cannot close my fingers to my palm.

Interestingly, despite decades of hard manual labor, my hands do not display any enlarged joints and I have excellent manual dexterity. The intermittent symptoms were of concern to me and so I have been monitoring them to see if there were any correlations in diet or activity. It didn't take me long to identify tartrazine and when I began to do more research, I was astounded by the number of common household food items that it is to be found in. I will experience some or all of the above symptoms within 12 hours of ingesting a food containing tartrazine, the severity relative to the amount of the food eaten.

When I avoid all foods containing tartrazine, I experience no symptoms. I have repeated this experiment several dozen times in the last year with precise correlation. I'm not aware of the mechanisms involved but I do not have to be a chemist or a doctor to recognize what I am experiencing and when. Just something for people to consider when they go to the doctor with various symptoms.

(NaturalNews) These days, most food products that are specifically marketed to children contain tartrazine. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop here. Tartrazine is also found in many medications, cosmetics and personal care products. It is in fact derived from coal tar. Some may not be familiar with what coal tar actually is or where it originates from. The online dictionary at www.dictionary.reference.com refers to coal tar as `a thick, black, viscid liquid formed during the distillation of coal, that upon further distillation yields compounds, as benzene, anthracene, and phenol, from which are derived a large number of dyes, drugs and other synthetic compounds, and that yields a final residuum (coal-tar pitch), which is used chiefly in making pavements.`

Tartrazine can also be seen on ingredient labels as FD&C yellow 5, E102 or C.I. 19140. It is one of a group of dyes known as azo dyes. It is in fact an artificial colouring that is used to make foods and other products more visually appealing or appetizing. It is also used in the printing, textile and paper-manufacturing industries as pH indicators or biological stains.

Side-Effects of Tartrazine

Time and time again, tartrazine has been proven to cause many different side-effects and allergic reactions in people. These can include: anxiety, migraines, asthma attacks, blurred vision, eczema, other skin rashes, thyroid cancer, Eosinophilia (increase in specific forms of white blood cells), clinical depression, ADHD or hyperactivity, hives, permanent DNA damage, heart palpitations, rhinitis, sleep disturbances/insomnia, general all-over weakness, hot flushes and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). In severe cases, anaphylactic-like reactions to tartrazine have also been reported. It is sometimes even fed to chickens to make their egg yolks more yellow and visually appealing!

Studies have also revealed that consuming tartrazine also aggravates and increases the symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (a painful wrist condition which is caused by the compression of the median nerve, which passes between the ligaments and bones in the wrist). The reason for this aggravation is because tartrazine interferes with the metabolism of Vitamin B6 in the body. By eliminating tartrazine from the diet, it is possible to reduce and even prevent the occurrence of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

The main reason that tartrazine is used is because of the fact that it is a cheap alternative to beta-carotene, which is 100% natural and beneficial to our health. Turmeric can also be used as an alternative colourant in savoury dishes. Malt and Annatto can also replace this extremely unhealthy additive.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032169_ta...#ixzz1nh09GgFl

[labelwench]

Since I started looking at labels, mostly on things that I don't eat, I have found tartrazine in virtually all pickles and relishes, all packaged puddings, cakes and pie fillings as well as almost all of the prepackaged ready-to-eat products and it's in almost all soda pop and energy drinks so I can see where many people are consuming a great quantity of this additive.

So what is FD&C Yellow 5 or E102 as it’s known in Europe?
Yellow no.5 is a synthetic bright yellow azo chemical dye called tartrazine. Tartrazine has been used since 1916 in various foods, drugs, and cosmetics. Today, tartrazine is the most widely used artificial color in the world and it accounts for as much as 85% of all food coloring ingested in the US.

It’s been VERY difficult to get any real information on what tartrazine really is or how it’s actually made due to the tight lipped nature of the industry, but fortunately I was able to find a truly fascinating book entitled, Twinkie Deconstructed by author Steve Ettinger. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. Essentially it’s all about the author’s journey to discover what exactly the 39 ingredients listed on the back of a Twinkie box really are. He visits the factories where these “ingredients” are made and traces everything back to its origins. I highly recommend the book even if you don’t eat sweets at all because most of those ingredients are the same ones found in most “health foods” today.

From his book I was able to gather some hard to come by information about tartrazine and how it’s made. Tartrazine comes from benzene which is a colorless runoff from crude oil (more below). It’s then mixed with nitric and sulfuric acids to make aniline which is modified to change the color saturation. The number 5 is just where it is in the color scale and the order in which it was created.

I’m not a chemist but here’s a little something about benzene. It’s a colorless, highly flammable chemical compound that is naturally found in, and synthesized from, petroleum. It’s a liquid. It used to be used as a gasoline additive but they’ve stopped using it now because it’s a carcinogen. It’s still used to make plastic, drugs, rubber, and your food dyes. That’s right, it can’t be used with gasoline because it’s too poisonous but the FDA will let you ingest it. (funny thing is they replaced amaranth with red 40 because they said amaranth might be a carcinogen.)

http://www.fitnessquests.com/2010/06...artrazine.html