10 Organic Farming Trends That Can Make Your Life Better.....

[seedcorn]

One reason for this has to do with cholesterol. There is some evidence that saturated fat puts cholesterol levels up, and we all know that cholesterol causes heart disease, right? So, if saturated fat puts cholesterol up, it must increased the risk of heart disease too.

From your article. This is logic. Altho all the article said "cause" heart problems. With that I do agree, it's genetic. Altho I know that when the body has excess nutrients (fat, starch, sugar) it is stored in the body for later use. One of the places fat is stored is in the veins/arteries of the body.

Does anyone know of GMO wheat? 3rd article said it was the problem. I didn't know any existed.

 

[wifezilla]

That example shows how the logic went. When the theory was tested, it turned out to be WRONG.

As for the wheat...
"In the 1980s, thousands of new wheat strains arose from hybridization experiments, many of them conducted in Mexico. Then, in the late 1980s, genetic engineering quietly got underway in which geneticists inserted or deleted single genes, mostly designed to generate specific characteristics, such as height, yield per acre, drought resistance, but especially resistance to various pesticides and weed killers. The fruits of these efforts were introduced into the market in 1994. Most of the genetically modified foods were thought to be only minor modifications of the unmodified original and thus no safety testing in animals or humans was conducted.

We now have many thousands of wheat strains that are different in important ways from original emmer, einkorn, and Triticum aestivum wheat. Interestingly, it has been suggested that einkorn wheat fails to provoke the same immune response characteristic of celiac disease provoked by modern wheat gluten, suggesting a different amino acid structure in gluten proteins. Another difference: Emmer wheat is up to 40% protein, compared to around 12% protein for modern wheat.

In other words, the wheat of earlier agricultural humans, including the wheat of Biblical times, is NOT the wheat of 2010. Modern wheat is quite a different thing with differing numbers of chromosomes, different genes due to human manipulation, varying gluten protein composition, perhaps other differences.

Somewhere in the shuffle and genetic sleight-of-hand that has occurred over the last 30 years, wheat changed. What might have been the "staff of life" has now become the cause of an incredible array of diseases of "wheat" intolerance."
http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/emmer-einkorn-and-agribusiness.html

 

[beavis]

Here's the real killer...

 

[seedcorn]

I would love to know what wheat varieties have been GMO'ed. If anyone knows, let me know as I'll be a rich man. Think law suit.

Wheat has the same number of chromosomes as it has always had. All genetic changes have been normal plant breeding to select for yield, disease tolerance, plant height, or other desired traits for harvesting. AgriPro did try to commercialize hybrid wheat to fail. Hybrid seed costs too much and in America, wheat does not mature, it dies. Hybrid wheat is the crossing of 2 different lines of wheat & not the crossing of wheat to corn.

Corn, wheat, or soybeans have all been selected for nutrient values only to have them not make production because the end user will not pay a premium for the desired products. There is always a cost with IP crops with yield losses, moisture costs, keeping it seperate, shipping costs, etc; that the end user has to pay for if they want it.

 

[hoodat]

The high price we pay for cheap food. This article is oriented to Great Britain but holds equally true in the US. We seldom think of oil when we think of food but in our global food economy an oil crunch could leave us in grave peril of our food supply.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-12-19/...ortages-cheap-food-supermarkets?_s=PM:OPINION

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think this helps show how complicated the answer really is. I think a simple answer to a problem is an elegant answer, but I don't think there is one simplistic answer to the problem of food supply. As far as world hunger goes, transportation is a huge issue, but I think poverty is more important. If people can afford to pay for it, someone will grow it, process it, and ship it to them, whether they can afford caviar from the Caspian Sea, catfish from a Mississippi catfish pond, or "fish" from a Chinese fish farm.

 

[Collector]

Hoodat, that article says much of what has been discussed here. It is already going on in this country also.
We can already see how fuel prices affect food prices. I'm not even talking about the use of our corn crop to produce ethenal, which has driven the price of food up 17% on its own. Just talking about high fuel prices driving up the cost of shipping the products to the store.The amount of money Our family is spending per month on food has become more than our house payment in the last couple of years. My friends and coworkers used to chuckle when I started buying chickens, meat rabbits, and preparing a vegatable garden. After the egg recalls and food price increases, many of them have been asking me how to raise these animals and grow a garden (whos laughing now). I just tell them that I just supply food and fresh water to the animals keep an eye out for illness, and they take care of themselves. About gardening I tell them that I know a lot less than I thought I knew (who wooda thunk).

 

[sparkles2307]

 

[seedcorn]

Hattie, correct me if I'm wrong but England and most european countries import a decent amount of their food. Major reason, not enough ground to grow crops vs population.

As with all countries, if resources we use today go short, life (ag) will change to adapt to the new rules. Think 1940's in USA.

When America gets hungry, the only cry will be for AG to produce more food. Interesting it goes up 17%, we think it's terrible. We in America pay less than 10% of our income for food. A 20% increase means we pay 12%. Most countries pay 30-60% of their income on food.

Common misconception is that the corn that goes into ethanol is lost for feed. Most of the corn that is diverted to ethanol is still fed as a protein/energy source, it's just missing part of the starch that went to make ethanol that is less of a pollutant than fossil fuels. So which do you want, a little more corn for food or more pollution? tough choice.

 

[dragonlaurel]

You won't glow in the dark. You will quietly have a quadruple bypass or one of many types of cancer or diabetes or any of the other common lifestyle diseases. If you glowed, it would certainly get more attention. The damage comes later, and then it is blamed on saturated fat....which is hogwash. Pun intended.

Thank you - good point.