Jo*mar, I think that you have made an excellent point.

The ways in which I deal with it are:

(1) My eggs and chicken meat come from independently certified free-range farms, which means that the chooks get to walk about outside rather than being locked up in awful cages.

(2) The same applies to my fish (mainly salmon and tuna) - it is certified as being sustainably farmed or wild-caught.

(3) My fruit and vegetables are all certified organic. That means that I know that no pesticides or other toxins have been used in growing them.

(4) My cheese comes from NZ, not just from a sense of patriotism. There is a well-known saying in NZ - Toitū te whenua - a free translation of it is "Cherish the land" - my people don't always do it perfectly but we do try to look after the land.

Just my thoughts and I am lucky enough to have enough money to make these ethical choices.

Jo*mar

Coincidentally this week I came across an article in our local farming paper that talked about soil depletion. At the time I cut it out as the numbers quoted seemed extraordinary. Now this topic has come up here on NT I did some searching for the sources of the info. Here's some links for those interested:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...utrition-loss/

http://www.ion.ac.uk/information/ona...neraldepletion

http://www.mineralresourcesint.co.uk...ral_deplet.pdf

A major factor as I see it too, is our massive population growth in the U.S. U.S. over 300million, Canada over 30million, Australia over 23million. Feeding more people and the massive turnover of our fields for growing and add the constant pesticides.

I am old (er) and can remember how much tastier foods were in my young life vs today. But we do our best with what we have and being aware of it all and the impact of foods on our health.

I do my most to buy organics and have learned to prioritize what I purchase at this point in my life. So much I don't need and a lot I never needed.

An anecdote a little removed from the main topic which I still don't fully "get" (apart from already knowing about some very serious although not that common health conditions regarding actual "Acidosis" that is).

I was making a curry and I sometimes like to use potato as well as all the other vegetables. I didn't have any and was in a hurry so I raced up to the supermarket and bought a very small bag of washed baby potatoes.

When I arrived home, I was looking at the packet and it said these potatoes were not for growing purposes. I said "say what??".

I was totally perplexed by this and did some investigation and found that all the potatoes were sprayed with something to stop them sprouting. Sprout retardant.

Of course, I really shouldn't have been so shocked all things considered, but heck, this was a new one for me.

In my investigations I came across a story of olde where people who travelled long distances used to take rose cuttings stuck into a potato so that it would still be viable after their journey and they could plant it and it would grow.

One recent story was about a woman who had heard about this and when she sold her house to move a long way away she stuck all her prized rose cuttings into potatoes only to find that they were all dead when she got there and that was from the retardant that was sprayed on the potatoes.

That is interesting, Lara.

Sprouting potatoes contain high amounts of solanine...an alkaloid which is toxic to humans. It is also in the green stuff potatoes tend to form. And shelf life is longer, it seems with the retardant.

By blocking this growing situation, the potatoes won't make the people who eat them sick. Can't say what the retardant does however... it could be toxic in some way too?

I've taken to putting my small red potatoes in the frig now, and this stops the greening and rotting. I always thought one should not refrigerate potatoes, but now for us, this is working well.

At first when I read the label about not growing them, I thought they must have been genetically modified (transgenic) but they weren't and that's what made me investigate further.

There appears to be a couple of chemicals commonly used. One is maleic hydrazide, also known as 1,2-dihydropyridazine-3,6-dione. The other is Chlorpropham.

http://www.decodedscience.org/chemic...e-growth/45175
Chemical treatment of potatoes to inhibit eye growth

It appears that washing isn't enough as the chemical treatment penetrates into the centre of the potato.

http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/si...rm+@DOCNO+1162
maleic hydrazide

http://archive.epa.gov/pesticides/re...f/0271fact.pdf
EPA Gov - Chlorpropham

So many foods are altered including our grapes in the U.S. No seeds, the best healthy part of the grape. I've wondered WHY they alter them, for convenience of the eaters. Even organics are seedless. Concords when they are available and are delicious do have seeds....very limited growing period. Well, at least the seeds go into the supplement world for grape seed extract.

I don't use potatoes that much but do buy a sweet or yam now and then and due to have one...it's been a couple weeks. One thing about organically grown foods, they are not perfect in looks as they are not grown with chemicals. Could be some large growers use a small amounts of chemicals with organics, but maybe not. The small growers don't use any I don't think. Nothing is for sure.

We eat potatoes very rarely. A small bag of reds, can last us over a month or more...hence they rot on us. but kept in the frig they don't seem to rot. If I have potatoes often, I get terrible burning, but once or twice a month, I have few symptoms.

Well rice has arsenic, potatoes have these chemicals, and gluten is out for me. There seems to be little to eat these days.

I have been scanning data about Organic Farming and it is NOW estimated that modern practices, with a small modification in dietary habits, could feed 9.2 BILLION people. The World already produces 3000kcals per person per day in foodstuffs, spoilage and waste accounts for the hunger and starvation in the World. We in the West are responsible for between 600 and 800lbs of ruined or wasted food per person per year. A lot of this is due to crop spoilage, supermarket waste etc, but remember your contribution when you clear out your fridge and cupboards.

One of my pet hates is wasted food. In my home I do not mind how quickly the fruit bowl, fridge or bread bin are emptied as long as nothing goes in the trash.

Dave.

Dave, I used to have a couple of chooks. They loved the vegie peelings and scraps.
I miss them. They were so cuddly. Midnight and Jackie.