On Fri, 04 Jun 2004 18:16:36 GMT, Frogleg wrote:

On Thu, 03 Jun 2004 01:31:34 GMT, fitwell
wrote:

p.s., I'm also concerned about one thing. _If_ older seeds from a
long time ago do germinate now yet new seeds don't, one has to wonder
about modern growing practices, too!

Stories of wheat sprouting from seeds found in ancient Egyptian tombs
seems to be mostly apocryphal, 'though there is good evidence for a
few sprouting seeds of 100 to possibly 1000 years old.

http://www.kew.org/msbp/msbfaq/msb_a12.html

Mustn't forget that our
ancestors did things the right way - more in accordance with nature's
laws, esp. before the industrial revolution! They may not have had
the "science" of this, as we supposedly do, but they had no choice.
They grew organically, etc. g

And the average lifespan was 47 years. :-)

Not genetically, no. We have a biological/genetic lifespan of about
120 years, roughly. That hasn't changed over time. (We still have
same genetic makeup now as we did millenia ago.) Unlike the whole
grains in the tomb thing, which I only saw that program about that one
time, this has been documented around the world to one degree or
another. Those who practice healthier lifestyles have shown this,
too. Also, 2 pockets of people are known - the Vilcabambians and the
Abkhazians though I don't know if their lifestyles have been corrupted
unduly in very recent times.

I know that this is going to throw a whole monkey wrench into this
discussion and, for all I know, an uproar sigh but I had to mention
it as we have the idea that how we live now and the length of that
life is normal. And the shorter lifespan of those living in recent
history is always thrown out. I'm glad to say that that's not a
normal lifespan either.

Incidences of longevity are not abnormal, they are the norm IF we
don't live unnaturally beyond a certain point. Which just goes to
show ... also, there's no question that sanitation and medical
practices do have an impact, which considering we generally eat worse
than our ancestors did (when did they ever eat boxes of
chemically-laden foods?), probably can account for a lot of the
difference in lifespan.

And as for the other re farming/grazing practices, I can't believe
that agribusinesses with their chemicals and unhealthy practices are
not worse than all those shepherds and sheep and cows, etc., etc. But
I guess I can say anything and someone will always come back with an
answer like that. All I personally know is, of course, what I've
experienced. Though I'm sure someone will argue with what I'm about
to say, I know what I have found ... My parents now live in Mexico
and they moved there in the 70s, so this isn't something recent.
Whenever I travel to visit them and eat the food there, I find it much
more flavourful than what we get here. To get the quality of the
fruits and vegetables I see at any ordinary restaurant there, I have
to eat at an expensive organic vegetarian restaurant here to get the
same types of exploding flavours! And I'm not talking about food
preparation, just the inherent flavour of the fruits/vegetables.

Though I'm sure Mexico is learning from us and their methods are
changing, every single time I visit, I find that this is still the
case in ordinary restaurant food or that prepared in homes of my
family.

Anyway, thanks everyone for taking the time to respond. I appreciate
it.