Kate Brown wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009, Martin Brown wrote
Kate Brown wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009, Martin Brown wrote

If you want a rational basis for agriculture then minimum inputs is
the way to go. Organic(TM) hair shirt growing may be OK for feeding
rich worried well but it cannot generate sufficient yields to feed
everyone.
We throw away two-thirds of the food we produce in the west. If we

You may do. I certainly don't. I occasionally fail to finish eating
the odd 40p reduced loaf before it goes mouldy in hot weather and that
is about it. Much of the fruit I buy from supermarkets is reduced and
on its sell by date (and as a result more or less ready to eat). I
refuse point blank to pay top whack for something that was harvested
unripe and chosen for its regular size and shelf life.

I generally support smaller local producers for veg that I cannot grow
but supermarkets are handy. My raspberries are just about finished.
Blueberries about to crop and far too many gooseberries to shake a
stick at. Looks like there will be a bumper crop of brambles this year
too.

solved the problem of waste we wouldn't need technological solutions
to grow more.

Yes we will. There are a very large number of people starving in the
third world and without sensible agricultural practices they will
continue to starve, subsist and wreck the land they try to live on.

Organic(TM) is a fad pandering to the "worried well" that allows
supermarkets to charge a super premium price for vastly overpackaged
produce with no convincing benefits whatsoever. Go look at the shelves.

And now that there is a decent scientific study showing that there are
no detectable differences and it is not healthier for you beyond the
feelgood factor and placebo effect of paying more for it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8174482.stm

It about time advertising standards were involved to shoot down some of
the spurious claims about Organic(TM) food.

I don't throw anything away if I can possibly help it. Below is the
blurb for something I heard and read about recently (OK, two thirds was
a bit exaggerated, I was remembering a bit askew. But add the waste from
North America and Europe to the waste of the developing world as
described below and it adds up to a shocking amount):

A fair number of Americans eat 30% more food than is needed to stay
healthy too! Around 30% with serious obesity and 5% morbidly obese and
rapidly rising.

There is no excuse for profligate wastage, but that is how the market
operates. To hold the price high they sometimes junk stuff. And in the
third world they cannot keep it fresh or get it to market in time.

Same sorts of problems happened in the UK when cities first developed
and before there was decent transport infrastructure. And we don't have
monsoon seasons where humidity and heat are high and roads are
impassable to contend with. Impassable roads by snow at least the cold
keeps most things from rotting.

Regards,
Martin Brown