Heritage meats, cloned pigs, and heirloom tomatoes

[Guest guest]

http://www.reason.com/rb/rb100902.shtml

A BRIED CLIP FROM THE ARTICLE:

Metcalfe is just one of thousands of

---I just had to make a comment on the writter of this article. Mr. has

written some incredibly rediculous articles (this is the first one I have read

which doesn't make me want to be sick). Take for instance an article he wrote a

few months back about how we need to bring back DDT because it saves so many

people. He opposes organics and I am very suprised to learn he appreciates the

conservation of rare animals. In other articles he make minor points that are

majorly out weighed by things like bringing DDT back. After reading these 2

attached articles I and many friends sent replys to this magazine because we

were absolutely furious at his articles. Since that time I have not read his

articles - I hope this is a change for the better (but I doubt it!). Here are a

few of his best--

a.. Silent Spring at 40

Carson's classic is not aging well. June 12, 2002.

a.. Organic Alchemy

Organic farming could kill billions of people. June 5, 2002.

Here are a few exerps from another of his recent articles - his comments on

organic food have fecks of truth, but miss the alternatives of conventional

farming, which are far worse! His point of view is from the United States

standard of living - and he is absolutely right that if the whole world lived

like Americans we wouldn't have any precious lands left. However if we stick to

conventional farming we won't have any topsoil in a few year and then farming

is totally impossible, but I suppose we could make some more chemicals to fix

this!!

And why should they care? Food today is cheap, nutritious, and safe.

I, too, cannot resist organic heirloom tomatoes. I buy organic not because such

foods are ecologically or nutritionally superior-they aren't-but simply because

the local lady who grows the wines, Mortgage Lifters, and Yellow Pears I

crave chooses that method of production. I'm glad she grows them, not least

because that means that I don't have to anymore. For those who are deluded

enough to think that organic foods are nutritionally superior, the market makes

the opportunity to buy them widely available, generally at a 30-percent price

premium. (Ideologically motivated organic aficionados should keep in mind that

organic production typically yields a third less food than other means. That

means that more land is being plowed down, leaving less for forests and other

wildlands.)

But there is something wrong with the puritanical notion that it's a sin to live

in blithe ignorance of the ultimate sources of your nourishment. Life is too

short for most people to learn how to fix their computers and cars, and too

short for most to learn about food production. And that's just fine. Eating

shouldn't be a moral duty; it should be a pleasure.

Sorry for the Rant!!

[Guest guest]

http://www.reason.com/rb/rb100902.shtml

A BRIED CLIP FROM THE ARTICLE:

Metcalfe is just one of thousands of people around the world who are devoted to

the private conservation of domestic varieties of animals and plants from

extinction. Aside from farm animals, thousands of people and hundreds of private

organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit, are working to preserve and

propagate heirloom varieties of plants. The Abundant Life Seed Foundation has

been saving, propagating, and selling heirloom seeds since 1975. The

foundation's catalog offers hundreds of varieties of heirloom vegetables,

including Bull's Heart and Dixie Golden Giant tomatoes, Shoepeg and Golden

Midget sweet corn, and Aztec Red Kidney and Clem & 's Big beans