Snap Clari Its Mr Chicky's birthday on Monday - he has remembered to take the day off and we are going to London to watch the Tour de France whizz through as his bday treat
Will be thinking of you tomorrow morning - whatever happens, we know you'll make the best of it.
OH came home from work with a brugmansia a colleague gave him .... Will be needing care tips soon!
I think the organic movement has been found out. There is little evidence that it actually tastes any different, is healthier, or is the right way forward to feed the world's growing population. Quite the opposite, organic is extensive in it's resource use, not intensive. In other words it uses more land to produce the same amount. This is not sustainable in world terms. We have to find ways of feeding a growing population, and a population which demands a higher standard of living year on year. Science, and specifically GM is the only way forward. All very uncomfortable. I know, but undeniable. The Chinese population grows by 8% each year!!
In our own country, those on lower incomes cannot afford expensive organics. Obesity is a growing problem, and many people have poor diets, and certainly don't eat their 5 a day. How can they afford organics? What society must do is give them the opportunity of purchasing cheap fruit and vegetables. Organics cannot do this.
Sorry to tread on sensitive toes on this issue, but we need rational solutions to the world's food problems, not pie in the sky, airy fairy thinking. The uncomfortable alternative is food shortages, higher prices and starvation. Organics have never provided the answers.
Maybe the world needs effective contraception to keep populations down. Killing all the wildlife and specifically all the bees,will lead to reduced food production, not more.
Why not propose that the developed nations such as ours provide a lead and eat less instead ? Why pass the problem to others to solve? Malthus, in the 19th century, wrote that the world could not sustain the then world population ,vastly smaller than it is now. Man's intelligence in finding solutions to it's problems has filled the gap, and it is there that we must seek our solutions, not wishful thinking. If we don't find ways of increasing food production, starvation and death will control population levels.
Are you saying that if we can persuade the others to limit their populations we can have the luxury of eating organics because we feel they may be good for we, rich folks?
Oooh this is all a bit deep and meaningful and mentally challenging for a tired Tracey after half a bottle of wine (not organic ), I think I'll just sit on the fence......again
I think that traditionally,in countries with high infant mortality rates,and no welfare payments, the way around it was to have lots of children, so that parents had a chance of someone to look after them in their old age. With vaccines and antibiotics, infant mortality rates have reduced,giving an increased population with no more food, hence starvation and charities like Oxfam providing food. I agree that an expanding population is unsustainable, but gm products like corn and the high fructose corn syrup lead to increased obesity not less. Saying that the poor in this country cannot afford fruit and veg is not true. If they have money for cigarettes, mobile phones and sky tv, it's not a lack of money that is the problem.
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This is what the RHS says -
Brugmansia were once known as Datura, but that name is now used only for certain annual or short-lived plants with similar but less pendulous flowers.
Snap Clari
Its Mr Chicky's birthday on Monday - he has remembered to take the day off and we are going to London to watch the Tour de France whizz through as his bday treat
Will be thinking of you tomorrow morning - whatever happens, we know you'll make the best of it.
OH came home from work with a brugmansia a colleague gave him .... Will be needing care tips soon!
Not had chance to catch up tonight so hope everyone is ok, I've been busy preparing for a meeting my OH has tomorrow.
Thinking of you Clari and hoping everything works out for you.
Catch up tomorrow everyone.
Night xx
Chicky, how big is the brugmansia?
I think the organic movement has been found out. There is little evidence that it actually tastes any different, is healthier, or is the right way forward to feed the world's growing population. Quite the opposite, organic is extensive in it's resource use, not intensive. In other words it uses more land to produce the same amount. This is not sustainable in world terms. We have to find ways of feeding a growing population, and a population which demands a higher standard of living year on year. Science, and specifically GM is the only way forward. All very uncomfortable. I know, but undeniable. The Chinese population grows by 8% each year!!
In our own country, those on lower incomes cannot afford expensive organics. Obesity is a growing problem, and many people have poor diets, and certainly don't eat their 5 a day. How can they afford organics? What society must do is give them the opportunity of purchasing cheap fruit and vegetables. Organics cannot do this.
Sorry to tread on sensitive toes on this issue, but we need rational solutions to the world's food problems, not pie in the sky, airy fairy thinking. The uncomfortable alternative is food shortages, higher prices and starvation. Organics have never provided the answers.
Maybe the world needs effective contraception to keep populations down. Killing all the wildlife and specifically all the bees,will lead to reduced food production, not more.
Why not propose that the developed nations such as ours provide a lead and eat less instead ? Why pass the problem to others to solve? Malthus, in the 19th century, wrote that the world could not sustain the then world population ,vastly smaller than it is now. Man's intelligence in finding solutions to it's problems has filled the gap, and it is there that we must seek our solutions, not wishful thinking. If we don't find ways of increasing food production, starvation and death will control population levels.
Are you saying that if we can persuade the others to limit their populations we can have the luxury of eating organics because we feel they may be good for we, rich folks?
Oooh this is all a bit deep and meaningful and mentally challenging for a tired Tracey after half a bottle of wine (not organic
), I think I'll just sit on the fence......again 
I think that traditionally,in countries with high infant mortality rates,and no welfare payments, the way around it was to have lots of children, so that parents had a chance of someone to look after them in their old age. With vaccines and antibiotics, infant mortality rates have reduced,giving an increased population with no more food, hence starvation and charities like Oxfam providing food. I agree that an expanding population is unsustainable, but gm products like corn and the high fructose corn syrup lead to increased obesity not less. Saying that the poor in this country cannot afford fruit and veg is not true. If they have money for cigarettes, mobile phones and sky tv, it's not a lack of money that is the problem.