Market Farming

["jay gee" <jgj23 AT mindspring.com>]

[Split into two parts due to message length]  Part 2

Rick Williams also wrote:
>>>>
> Cite examples of anything like this happening with organic or
> naturally grown foods.
 
 Unfortunately they do. As we had recently with the Wisconsin direct
 marketing of "incidental" sales of milk. And many, many other times in the
 past that led to all the food regulations. Remember that the regulations are
 not something that happened recently as some seem to suggest. But rather,
 occurred many decades ago as government got much more involved with public
 health issues.
<<<<

Poor response Rick.  "Unfortunately they do."  The Wisconsin example
you provided is not widely know.  Can you conjure something more
widespread?  Scale is important here because it goes to the heart
of the issue being discussed.
 
Rick Williams wrote:
>>>>
 What you need to do is have good science so you can make your case and take
 it to your legislators and effect some changes. It is not easy to do this.
 Nor should it be easy to do. But over time changes can and will be made.
<<<<

Good Science is taken to the Hill often and allowed to die in a
heap.  Good Science should not need to open a checkbook
to get a hearing.  Remember, the average legislator is a lawyer
who could not be successful practicing law.  They are used to
being directed by "higher status" individuals or groups and getting
their strokes when election time comes.  Legislators as a group
do not like Good Science because it tells them and the people
who elected them the correct path.  Frequently, no room is left
for argument.  Go into a room full of lawyers and see if they will
stop arguing for twenty minutes.  Not only does it cut down on
argument slack, when the Science dictates what their financial
sponsors don't want, big problema.

Rick Williams wrote:
>>>>
> > Have you ever wondered why serious medical research into
> > the logic behind the Atkins Diet has never been conducted
> > by the NIH, or why the NIH started promoting pastas and
> > low fat diets in spite of conflicting evidence that an abundance
> > of starch in the diet leads to obesity?  It about politics, that
> > process you so thoroughly endorse.

> The Atkins diet has been studied a great deal. In fact we had a presentation
> on diet issues in the last couple of weeks at  my off farm job and there was
> some interest by both the staff and the R.D. presenter. The diet does work
> to a certain extent but it has some dangers associated with it since you are
> eating an exceptionally high protein diet and then the body does have to
> remove the excess N. I beleive that the effect is similar to ketosis and can
> be risky if there is any predisposition to kidney problems. Also, from
> relatives and friends who have tried it and had fairly good sucess, they do
> complain that supposedly you can get a rebound effect and the next time you
> try it the results are not as good. Seems like it should work each time but
> perhaps others here had attest to their sucess with the diet.
<<<<

According to widespread reasearch quoted by the New York Times
scientists have learned that following the Atkins Diet not only causes
weight loss, that all blood chemistry improves along with it.

Anyone who want a copy of the article, email me off list.  I would
provide a link, but the article is no longer posted, also, it's 50K long.

Rick Williams wrote:
>>>>
 The health food folks were very big on the complex carbohydrate diet to get
 away from the high fat and high meat diet that they believed were killing
 people. One reads so many conflicting things that it is not easy to sift the
 gold from the chaff at times. Some are now taking a contrary point of view.
 Especially the trans fatty acid issues.
<<<<

The "health food people" have always advocated lots of veggies
and unrefined flour products.  The "low fat" bandwagon is a
relatively new (last twenty years) phenomenon, promoted
mainly by the processors of food through their shills.  The
problem is that the body has no need to metabolize fat if
it gets energy from carbohydrates.  Keep in mind that human
beings have only been growing their own crops for the last
10,000 years or so.

Rick Williams wrote:
>>>>
> > I recall also that a number of ADM executives were actually
> > sent to prison for their transgressions.  Why?  Because it
> > is the way they do business!
 
 It was good to see them go to prison but they were not punished that much in
 my view. Their crime was price fixing though and not anything wrong with the
 product.
<<<<

Price fixing?  Gee, I knew that.  Wouldn't you say price fixing has
a negative financial impact on consumers?  I would.  So did the Feds.


Jay Gee
not a farmer -- but interested in farming