posted May 05, 2004 10:27 PM         

Organic costs more, so we pay more for less toxins, low fat food is usually more expensive that fattier foods.

Take thrush for example too. I get thrush (if I don't already have it) everytime my boyfried comes near me with a condom. To get the non-latex is double the price, added to which they are made larger so it's easier for the thing to slip off.

Gyms cost extortionate amounts of money now, as with solar power, I could go on !!

posted May 05, 2004 11:13 PM         

Altho I agree with you 100% and then some, keep in mind that 100 years back people died from lack of refrigeration, dental abcesses, and simple infections. Its all about perspective. We are choking on our own excess.

Our Earth cannot provide each of us with the land it takes for us to each grow healthy food with sustainable agriculture.

It sucks, the nature of economy. Only the monied are able to maintain a "healthy" lifestyle, if they choose.

I wish I knew what the answer is.

posted May 06, 2004 04:57 AM         

quote:

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Our Earth cannot provide each of us with the land it takes for us to each grow healthy food with sustainable agriculture.

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Respectfully, I disagree with that comment. There is actually enough food produced today, even with a horrifficly unsustainable industrial agricultural model, to feed every person on earth 3,500 calories a day. A permaculture system produces anywhere from 10 to 100 times the amount of food per acre as a monoculture acre. Though I certainly don't advocate for the human population to grow larger, we could actually sustain a few billion more if the whole world went permaculture..

posted May 07, 2004 11:31 PM         

It's really amazing how a totally inhospitable landscape can be transformed using permaculture to produce a bountiful food forest.

posted May 08, 2004 07:18 PM         

I am paying out of pocket for a Chiropractor who has cured my legs and feet problems when Kaiser does not know sh*t (excuse me), and just wants to give me drugs. I am also grateful I found a very holistic Chiropractor.

I am paying out of pocket for a N.P. Hormone Specialist at the end of this month, to hopefully solve my female hormonal problems.

I have accepted the fact that I have to pay $$$$$$ to be healthy in this life.

posted May 21, 2004 08:37 AM         

quote:

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how can anyone explain one personality having diabetes, while another hasn't?

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tahariel - can you tell me where you came across this? i've never heard of that before, but if it's true it is extremely revealing about mind over matter...

thanks so much,

posted May 26, 2004 01:57 PM         

Seems like a cool book

posted May 26, 2004 08:28 PM         

Blessings to all.

posted October 03, 2004 07:33 PM         

quote:

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I can't understand why the world wants us to be living like this

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The planet itself has nothing to do with the high prices of organic food. It has everything to do with our society creating this situation. Industrial food.. that is, chemically polluted food is subsidised by our government and society, giving those who produce it a means to sell their goods for less than the cost of production. They write their costs off on the society and ecosystems as a whole and therefore their product has the false image of being 'cheap'. For example, if the costs of cleaning up the pollution caused by industrial agriculture, the costs of caring for all the people who become sick because of the chemicals polluting their food source, and the value of all the biodiversity that is destroyed by industrial agriculture were worked into the cost of industrial food then likely no one but the wealthiest upper crust of society could eat it.

posted October 05, 2004 12:47 PM         

Researchers Study Organic Farming

JONATHAN DREW

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Organic farming sounds simple - no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or genetically engineered plants. But succeeding at it can be complicated.

A recent wave of research at universities across the country seeks to take some of the guesswork and financial uncertainty out of the practice.

"There's so many things that interact naturally that you can't control that you could with chemicals. I think you could spend a whole lifetime learning how," said Dale Dyko, who grows organic corn, spelt - a type of wheat - and soybeans on about 30 acres in Xenia in western Ohio.

Organic food sales almost tripled from 1997 through 2003 to $10.4 billion, according to the Organic Trade Association. Organic fruits and vegetables account for most of the sales, while organic meats and snack foods, such as corn chips and rice cakes, are two of the fastest growing segments.

"Organic agriculture is just a growth culture within all agricultural industries," said Matt Kleinhenz, the lead researcher on a study at Ohio State University. "Scientifically and practically we don't know enough about it."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it has been increasing its financial support of organic farming research at universities and other organizations since 2000. Funding for one program has increased nearly fourfold to about $1.9 million from 2000, said Philip Schwab, a policy adviser with the agency.

Organic farming, though, makes up only a small part of U.S. agriculture. Certified organic crops were grown on 562,486 acres in 2002, a fraction of the 300 million acres on which all crops were harvested, according to the USDA's census.

Making money at farming has for generations meant using chemicals to kill weeds, fight off insects and disease and otherwise wrench predictable results from soil and plants. Going organic - abandoning use of nearly all chemicals - unleashes a different set of variables.

"Conventional ag is a little bit more like a recipe. You know what to pour out of the bag," said Nancy Creamer, director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at North Carolina State University.

Farmers like Ed Snavely, who switched from traditional to organic methods in 1986, say they have relied on advice from other growers and trial and error to develop their techniques.

Snavely monitors temperature and soil moisture on his 100 acres in Knox County and scrapes his fingers through the dirt looking for young weeds just below the surface that look like tiny, white hairs. Waiting even a day too long can allow the weeds to grow too big to manage easily, he said.

Typically, Snavely weeds three times before planting his crops, which include buckwheat, soybeans and hay, and four times after planting.

"With most of your conventional farmers, it's plant, spray and forget. If you're going to go organic, you can't plant and forget. You've got to be out there walking your fields," he said.

Going organic can also be a financial risk. In subtracting nearly all chemicals, farmers say they also subtract from their profits in the first few years. It takes time to master a new way of farming.

Compounding the problem, a farmer who switches from conventional growing methods has to wait three years to obtain certification from the government, a label that helps ensure higher prices.

Snavely said he would have benefited if more scientific data had been available when he made the switch.

"I took some big yield reductions because I didn't know what I was doing," he said.

Current studies aim to generate data that can be accessed through the Internet or obtained from university and government employees who consult with farmers.

North Carolina State's Creamer said the organic farming studies will also benefit conventional farmers. A study she's leading tests how crops grow after the removal of each of three chemicals - a herbicide, a pesticide and a chemical fertilizer.

"A lot of conventional farmers have been waiting for the universities to confirm some of the existing anecdotal evidence," she said.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/9769661.htm?1c

posted October 05, 2004 05:26 PM         

The absolute absurdity coupled with the tragedy of this statement really struck me. The way they make it sound, organic ag. is like some kind of new age, cutting edge science. Which in some ways I suppose it is. The thing is, we've only been farming with chemicals for a hundred years or so. A tiny drip in the bucket of time that humanity has been growing food without the use of petroleum products. It's a depressing thought that so much accumulated knowledge of how to work the land has been lost already.

"alleged class issues"

Not sure if you are referring to my last comments or not, Isis. That wasn't exactly what I was saying. I was saying that chemically grown food being cheaper is actually a falsehood. If the cost of producing the chemicals and transporting them and the cost to the ecosystem and to future generations who will be dependant on that same soil were actually factored into the price of industrial food then it would be outrageously expensive and organic food grown locally would be affordable.

posted October 05, 2004 09:04 PM         

Since the title of the thread is, "why is it so expensive to be healthy", I thought this article had a lot to say to that end.

The "alleged class issues" comment was made because I misread your "likely no one but the wealthiest upper crust of society could eat it" comment to mean that class issues were part of the problem. My mistake, apologies.