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Lowering the prices of organic foods. It cost so much more to try and eat healthy. Hard to afford the organic stuff.
Here's one place the government could do some meddling that is likely to provide a real health benefit ( rather than mere disease care ). Remove the subsidies from corn and give that money to organic farmers instead.
However, I'm not holding my breath. I'm willing to pay the premium for organic food upfront to better my chance of STAYING healthy. It seems like the most basic common sense to me that consuming pesticides in my food is a surefire ticket to health problems down the road. I'd rather bite the bullet and pay more for organic food upfront, rather than paying it on the back end with doctor bills and diminished quality of life from consuming all of those pesticides. But thats just me. Everyone else can do whatever makes sense to you. It's your life and your body.
All agricultural land in Cuba is already compliant organic. No chemicals or pesticides have ever been used there. It would not cost our government one cent to tell Cuba that we will happily import all the organic fruits and veggies and meat products they can harvest, and export to them whatever they want in return.
If people want to believe that eating organic food is the key to health its fine with me. What I will resist is spending alot of money on these things or holding out some false hope that this will make some dramatic change in our health.
Americans need to eat less meat, fat, and sugar. We need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We need to substitute more chicken and fish for beef and pork. The 50 million Americans who smoke need to give up the habit. Finally, alcohol abuse is a serious public health problem outnumbering deaths from illegal and prescription drug abuse by a factor of 5 or 10.
The value of organic food has not been scientifically proven. I chuckle at people who place so much stock in this as a "health remedy". Show me the hard statistical data that this would revolutionize health. I'll think its humbug until I see it.
Considering that the price of organic food is roughly double the cost of mass produced and marketed, there is a huge amount of money being spend on the difference. But that money did not grow on trees. It had to be produced as national wealth. And the production of wealth has its environmental costs.
Is is quite possible that the negative environmental impact of earning the wealth necessary to afford organic food, exceeds the overall gain in public health that organic consumption is supposed to engender.
If people want to believe that eating organic food is the key to health its fine with me. What I will resist is spending alot of money on these things or holding out some false hope that this will make some dramatic change in our health.
Americans need to eat less meat, fat, and sugar. We need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We need to substitute more chicken and fish for beef and pork. The 50 million Americans who smoke need to give up the habit. Finally, alcohol abuse is a serious public health problem outnumbering deaths from illegal and prescription drug abuse by a factor of 5 or 10.
The value of organic food has not been scientifically proven. I chuckle at people who place so much stock in this as a "health remedy". Show me the hard statistical data that this would revolutionize health. I'll think its humbug until I see it.
Mark...I mostly agree with you! I eat no meat, very little fat, and almost no sugar. Where we differ is with regard to scientific proof. For better or worse, I am one of those people who value common sense more than scientific proof. It is commonly accepted that runoff containing pesticides and chemical fertilizers are polluting many of our rivers and streams. It seems logical to me that those same pesticides on/in our food would be potentially dangerous. It's simply not worth the risk to me. I'd rather spend the money on organic produce and play it safe. Worse case scenario is that one day science may prove that I was a silly fool to spend the extra money. So what! Eating organic ( mostly ) is one gamble I'm willing to take. Anyone choosing to do otherwise is making the choices that seem best for that person.
There is a lot less pesticide on your food than you think. Much of it is applied long before harvest, and either rinses off from rain, or breaks down quickly to harmless components. For example, apples. The pesticide is sprayed on long before the buds begin to fruit, to rid the tree of insects whose larvae would ultimately be damaging to the crop. So there is no way any active pesticide comes into contact with the actual apple. This is not to say that pesticides pose no adverse considerations, but that the general assumption that foods are covered with pesticides is wildly exaggerted.
When the editors of a financial inestment site are airing a story that puts the kabosh on the private sector, you know there is something enormously fishy in the bowels the industry.
I would like to add a little about $25 doctors, pharma, and whole foods.
The best medical care I had in rural America is the $25 doctors. They did not accept insurance of any kind for anyone of any age, Medicare or Medicaid. If you were a new patient it was cash only. They did not do hospital rounds, staff meetings, or ER rotations.
The 25 bucks bought an exam, basic blood and lab tests if needed, wound care products if needed, necessary patient medical forms signed and a Rx if needed. An extra ten bucks bought a months supply of necessary medicants such as blood pressure pills, and an extra $15 got all of the above plus 2 dispensed drugs. It was $25 to examine and culture a food wound which turned out to be MRDA. I left with $50 worth of wound care supplies, a prescription, and an admonition to return for more wound care supplies if needed. $35 bought emergency office surgery. Doc removed a double-boil on my neck that was too close to the spine and I left with wound care supplies and instructions. Then I went to the vet and he gave me a package of sterile cotton swabs on a stick. I knew i needed something with a smaller, tighter head that would not leave cotton fluff in the wound and longer stick because the wound was deep. He tossed me a new package of 100 swabs and refused payment because they were free to him. .
The dirty little secret of pharma is they subsidize every country, including Canada, except the US.
Instead of subsidizing drugs where it will do good, they pay doctors to write prescriptions and pharmacists to fill them. I played that game after open heart surgery and it almost killed my spouse. They cared not on whit about anything except writing new Rx for us every two weeks. I threw away a lot of expensive drugs. After 6 months of zero improvement I fired them. I went right back to the $25 family doctor. That was $13 year ago. This particular rural town doc, was a licensed DVM before he went back to school for MD. He was a heart surgeon and FAA examiner. He also built the first hospital and hired the first doctors. By he was 75, he was tired of the hospital grind. He resigned his hospital affiliation and switched to four hour clinic and $25 office calls. He died very well loved and very wealthy. And I would bet my last dime, he did his fair share of old time doctoring where he was not paid in greenbacks.
My daughter is critically ill. She eats a lot of wheat-free, gluten free, BHT free, fat free foods. She cannot eat fresh veggies or meats. She has a 'short gut' that can't process meat. I don't grill over charcoal, I read labels, I rarely eat hotdogs or sausage and I make my own nearly fat=free ground beef and stew/soup beef chunks. And we drink only bottled as there are trace nitrates in our water. FDA says the small amount is okay, but I don't think so.
There is a lot wrong in a lot of places. We cannot "trickle down: health care. It is a giant, festering wound, that has to be cleaned up at the infection site first.
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