Warrior4Christ (post: 1424427) wrote:Question: does burning wood in a fireplace during winter give off carbon dioxide comparable to the average use of a car? It seems like a fairly "natural" thing to do though.
Um, could you clarify this? I know that according to the FDA, "organic" means that 95% of the item must be made with natural ingredients- meaning, synthetic pesticides are restricted, livestock must be reared without routined antibiotics, synthetic chemicals in general aren't used. I actually don't mind this, as I am aware of what those chemicals can do and how long they stay in the body. ANd I'm not entirely fond of modern farming practices, as they can affect the ecological systems that surround them.ich1990 (post: 1424433) wrote:But I also think that most people don't think through this stuff quite well enough. For instance, many people may buy organic foods without looking at how much of the crop they are consuming is lost due to the fact that it was not created using modern agricultural technology. That is, they support inefficient farming practices (which use up extra resources, cause even more desertification, etc.), all while having a clean conscience because they think they are helping the environment. Organic sounds so benign.
Agreed on this one.Another example is hybrid cars. Many people think they are going green because they buy partially electric or wholly electric vehicles. The reality is the power they are using had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is probably that coal plant just outside of town.... hybrid and electric vehicles actually have a net-negative affect on the environment.
Atria35 (post: 1424457) wrote:Um, could you clarify this? I know that according to the FDA, "organic" means that 95% of the item must be made with natural ingredients- meaning, synthetic pesticides are restricted, livestock must be reared without routined antibiotics, synthetic chemicals in general aren't used. I actually don't mind this, as I am aware of what those chamicals can do and how long they stay in the body- and workers on those farms aren't dying of cancer or going infertile, like on our modern farms that do use these things. And modern farming practices wear out the land far more quickly than traditional farming methods, which is just as inefficient.
That's pretty cool. I didn't know that about wind farmsmechana2015 (post: 1424469) wrote:Another side of cars like the leaf is that they can store excess power produced by renewable energy sources. For example, wind power is usually more effective at night, but it can actually OVERproduce power, resulting in waste energy. The LEAF and other plug in electric vehicles are supposedly going to consume the overdraw since their primary charging time will be at night in the garage of the home. A big issue from many forms of power production is storage... something that can be used to contain the unused power for later use, and electric cars are being seen as a piece of that solution.
Sorry. I was thinking about the up-and-coming "modern" farms in.... not the US, actually. We're fairly self-sufficient and good about this sort of thing, but there are enough countries out there that use our modern practices and aren't as strict as the US with regulations. The recent scandal in China has illustrated that there's a lot of things going on in their food industry that isn't kosher- while that chemical was added after the cows had been milked, I believe there have been issues about bad agricultural practices getting antibiotics into food, and also clogging up (and poisoning) their rivers and lakes. However! THat doesn't mean that the US is the greatest. There are enough reports going around (and reports from the CDC) that the US population still gets too many antibiotics in it's food. So I would still disagree with you there.Rewin (post: 1424475) wrote:I'm going to have to argue with you on this one. Modern chemicals used on crops are highly monitored and regulated and I know of no farmer in my area whose cancer has been even remotely traced to these chemicals, nor is there anything showing that those in rural areas get cancer more frequently than those in urban areas. Likewise, I don't know very many farmers who are sterile (seriously, there are a lot of large agriculture families around here). As for antibiotics in cattle (or any meat for that matter), this is strongly regulated by the USDA. All antibiotics come with a withdrawl period that tells you how long you must wait before the animal can be slaughtered for human consumption, and if any animal is found with antibiotics still in it's system the owner is put onto probation. Any offense while on probation results in a fine or worse, depending on the number of offenses. This also applies to milk that is sold.
I was aware of the land being able to be used that wasn't before- I follow farming efforts in China, and have seen that used. It is fairly impressive. But I just wonder about the chemicals that are put into the ground to help the plants grow- the nitrogen-rich ones. I've seen enough articles in newspapers about those getting into the rivers and lakes, which is very bad for the ecological systems there. I can pull a few of those up in a bit. Don't do the global warming thing. That's not what we're talking about, and will for sure spark further debate. This isn't for debate, it's for discussion.Finally, the area I live has been farm ground for hundreds of years and is producing better than ever. Our farming methods may take a lot out of the ground, but we know how to do it right and keep the ground from being ruined. Also, modern farming and technology have allowed us to convert ground that once was "unfarmable" to be used properly. It is more efficient and allows us to produce crops in a way that keeps the prices reasonable. The only modern thing destroying farm land is the expansion of cities.
I also don't buy into the "global warming" fraud (will find links later to explain why I call it fraud).
ShiroiHikari (post: 1424478) wrote:Regarding discussion of global warming: Let's not and say we did. Seriously, that's a very controversial subject that should probably be left off these boards.
Atria35 (post: 1424480) wrote:That's pretty cool. I didn't know that about wind farms
mechana2015 (post: 1424481) wrote:On another point, people would be surprised at how much waste is created by plastic recycling...it's not actually that efficient, or power friendly since it's a petroleum based product that requires extensive chemical processes to recycle. A better solution would be to find something less toxic and either better at biodegrading, or easier to reconstitute to make the majority of our plastic products out of, especially the disposable plastics.
ShiroiHikari (post: 1424484) wrote:Good point there. Personally I'd rather we start using glass bottles again instead of plastic for things like soda and whatnot. I doubt that's ever going to happen though.
Radical Dreamer (post: 1424486) wrote:I'm gonna start by dropping a little piece of awesome into this thread:
Yuki-Anne (post: 1424529) wrote:Speaking of more biodegradable materials, did you guys notice how a few months back, SunChips changed their bags to more eco-friendly ones? They're seriously the noisiest chip bags in the history of the modern snack.
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