which is sort of Dwayne's point again. *That* for Pollan is, well what happened. We evolved, plants evolved, animals evolved, grasses evolved -- *with* us in the picture. People who couldn't deal with the diseases died. People who are intolerant to the proteins in grain got sick and died (see wheat intolerance related diseases).
All of this was the work of human technology, which *is* natural. It is what we did, and when we did it, crops like the kind of corn we have today grew and survived, because it "needs" us to help it propagate, and other crops that didn't fare well in our presence died. So too with animals. by hunting them, we helped keep their species down so they didn't kill themselves overgrazing and such.
all that is, well, natural. according to this part of Pollan's story.
but all this other stuff we do, today, it is *unnatural* (doesn't work with the rhthyms of nature, doesn't let grass be what it wants to be, chicken what they want to be, etc.) because it doesn't work with the rhythms of nature. but as you point out, what's the cut off point? 10 years or 10,000s of years? Maybe we *will* wipe ourselves out. Lard knows that humans before us did -- there are archaeological sites in the u.s. that shows that humans long before us wiped out their crops and potable water supply and died.
Agriculture *IS* the result of us wiping out our hunting and foraging food supply.
Natural.
But now, as we wipe out our current food system and give ourselves new diseases because of what we do -- it is UNNATURAL. It is not working with the rhytms of nature.
because, of course, the people who wiped themselves out before fossil fuel *were* working with the rhythms of nature? fuckifino. Pollan is a little confused on this topic.
Ditto to what Dwayne said about my position on industrial farming. Just because I'm criticizing Pollan's hidden assumptions, it doesn't follow that I don't agree that our current farming system sucks.
At 05:17 PM 10/14/2008, Chris Doss wrote:
>Well, this hasn't happened yet. :) But it probably will. :(
>
>Due to modern speed and frequency of transport, new diseases are going to
>spread really fast. Eventually you're going to get an HIV equivalent that
>is passed on through contact or the air. That is going to be really bad.
>
>--- On Tue, 10/14/08, Thomas Seay <entheogens at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > How about antibiotics-which are a good thing and have saved
> > tons of lives- when overused give rise to a super-resistant
> > bug that will wipe out large numbers of people? Sounds like
> > a "B" Sci-fi Japanese flick from the 60s, but
> > it's possible and even likely at some point.
> >
> > I only started looking seriously at this after getting
> > lyme-disease which, ta-dah, is requiring me to take mass
> > quantities of antibiotics for a while.
> >
> > Thomas
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
>
>
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