Better living through chemistry…
More and more, I find myself wondering how long man can continue playing with Nature before we pay the ultimate price. Experiments with that ultra-flu virus make me think that way. So does reading that scientists in the Netherlands have developed a glob they think is artificial beef. The first hamburger will be ready to serve in the Fall.
There’s a somewhat limited market for a $400,000 dollar hamburger but mass production will kick in and take care of that. But what would be the real price of such a burger? And I don’t mean all the un-calculated real costs in energy and transportation and minerals involved in production. I mean those little facts glossed over in the story: that it grows in a dish “rich in nutrients” (artificial nutrients, presumably) and that the color isn’t appetizing so it will have to be dyed. Presumably not with Red Dye 2 or 40. Don’t get too curious about the fat that will have to be added.
We’re only now beginning to realize that genetically modified foods—the last big break-through from the chemical giants—aren’t behaving as predicted. Weird things are happening in the soil…new weeds are developing that can’t be eradicated with any known herbicide. New illnesses are one of the side effects, too. And, by the way, turns out the yields aren’t better, after all.
The one clear beneficiary is Monsanto, which now controls the seeds and pity the poor farmer who has some GMO corn in his field which blew over from his neighbor’s field, even if that neighbor is miles away.
It’s all a part of our ego, our refusal to accept Nature’s limits. And so agriculture keeps pushing for more and bigger. And when that kills the soil, just pour on more fertilizer. And when that kills the microbes beneath the soil, bring in jugs of bottled microbes and pour them on, too.
We see it among our friends, who are mostly of our own “certain age”. Sit down to a meal and a string of pills are laid out and conversation soon reveals some of the pills are for the other pills. And we know young people, too, who are on a diet of chemicals…some to “take them down” and some to pick them up.
Surveys may indicate that by 2 to 1, we don’t want chemical hamburgers. We don’t want genetically modified food either. But we have it. Banned in Europe, today GM vegetables and meat are a part of every American diet.
We read that about 10% of Americans are vigorously resisting, buying carefully and searching out healthy, locally-grown food. But it’s hard work, and most of us are just “too busy”. Meanwhile, our government is cracking down; cracking down on those Amish farmers in Pennsylvania who are raising food naturally.